Page 27 - C.A.L.L. #35 - Fall 2012

(The Community of LAND, WORK, WAY of LIFE, BELIEF)

… Even if the modern state will be socialist, it will be unable to fulfill the
yearning for fellowship. The state cannot give the individual the elemental
feeling of togetherness which s/he seeks from fellowship. For the state is not

and is not intended to be a fellowship. No large aggregate of people can be
termed “true community” unless it is composed of small, vital social units of
experiential togetherness. The relationships between the “true communities”
must be as direct and vital as are the relationships between members of the
individual “true community”.

When the real-life relationships between people within their natural
social units are fragmented** then the larger social unit can only pretend to
relate to the desire for fellowship and partnership.

It is necessary to renew the real-life bonds between individuals. The
revival of the primary community necessitates revival of local community, work
community, fellowship and the religious congregation. All of these, whether they

have withered or become part of a state-like machine, whether they exist in
partial concealment or if they are tolerated by or ignored by the state – of
these must become the home for beings of the spirit whose life on earth will be
fulfilled in the community’s precincts. The public life must become an expression
of partnership in community. Only thus can we revive the primary community
stemming from land and labor in common as well as togetherness in way of life
and belief. These four bases of relationship parallel the above four types of
fellowship.

Only the community (and not the state) can constitute the responsible
bearer of land held in common (even if the formal ownership of the land is in the
hands of the state.) Only the work-fellowship, (not the state) can be the
suitable framework for collective production. Only the social fellowship – not
the state – can generate a new way of life. Only in religious fellowship (as
distinct from the formal church) can a new belief flourish…

*Translated into English from the Hebrew version in: Avraham Shapira, Ed.,
“Chavruta”, Nativot B’Utopia, Sifriat Ofakim, Am Oved, 1983, p. 165 ff.

** Buber refers to the mechanical separation of the spheres of work, family,
worship, and politics within modern society

Compiled by Michael Livni

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