One must … take care not to understand this conversation with God-the conversation of which I have to speak in this book … as something happening solely alongside or above the everyday. God’s speech to humankind penetrates what happens in the life of each one of us, and all that happens in the world around us, biographical and historical, and makes it for you and me into instruction, message, demand. Happening upon happening, situation upon situation, are enabled and empowered by the personal speech of God to demand of the human person that they take their stand and make their decision. Often enough we think there is nothing to hear, but long before we have ourselves put wax in our ears.
Martin Buber, I and Thou, translated by Ronald Gregor Smith, Scribner Classics, 2000 (1958), 125-6.
Image: “Jewish prayers on shabbat day,” Maksymilian Gierymski, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Matters of Interpretation 