… if solitude is the stronghold of isolation, where a man conducts a dialogue with himself – not in order to test and master himself for that which awaits him but in the enjoyment of the conformation of his soul – then we have the real fall of the spirit into spirituality.
Martin Buber, I and Thou, translated by Ronald Gregor Smith, Scribner Classics, 2000 (1958), 100.
Image: “A Yeshiva Boy” (detail), Isidor Kaufmann, public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Matters of Interpretation 
