T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

athroom he thinks of her "breasts like small birds in flight,her ass like a flowern(TA 75). And like Aphrodite, Helen leavesa floral fragrance about her in the air (TA 184)Many readers have stumbled over the 'similarity in names-Martin Buber and Morris Bober, one the Hasidic theologian andthe other the grocer in 33s Assistant. There is a distinctsimilarity not Only in the beliefs expressed and acted upon bythese two men, but also in the phllosophy one can infer fromthe novel as a whole. Bober is not an orthodox Jew. He does notobey Mosalc dietary laws, nor does he regularly attendrellgious SerVlCeS. Similarly" ... Buber does not regard theJewlsh law as essential to the Jewish traditlon..He contraststhe false desire for security of the dogmas of the law with the'holy insecurity' of the truly rellgious man who does notdlvorce hls action from intention. (Frledman 1955,261) Buberhlmself has sald in Between Man and Man, "I have given up therellgious" (1975,69). For the grocer, the key to a moralexlstence is personal responslbilty for others- "A Jew mustbelleve in the Law.. . This means to do what is right, to behonest, to be good. This means to other people. Our life ishard enough. Why should we hurt somebody else?"(TA 124)Aocordlng to Buber, a moral man 1s one "withresponsibility for the action of those who act, since he iswholly defined by the tension between being and 'ought to be'.