Page 8 - Eclipse of God

Introduction to the

2016 Edition

Given that this book was first published in 1952, and given
its title, Eclipse of God, some readers may assume that this is
a work of post- Holocaust theology. It is not. In these essays,
Buber does not offer a response to the Holocaust because “the
eclipse of God,” for him, marks not only God’s absence during
the Shoah but also God’s absence in the modern world more
broadly. “The eclipse of God” is the Jewish notion of “hester
panim,” which refers to God hiding His face. The term is orig-
inally biblical, occurring, for instance, in Deuteronomy 31:17,
when God says, “And I will forsake them [the children of Is-
rael], and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be
1
devoured,” and later in the prophets. In its original contexts,
“hester panim” connotes a God who bestows rewards on those
who obey His commands and punishes the wicked by hiding
His face from them. The idea of a retributive God may be dif-
ficult for many people today, but, following Jewish mystical
traditions, Buber interprets the term hopefully, for a hiding
God is a God who can also be found. 2

1 See also Deuteronomy 32:20; Psalms 13:2, 102:3, 143:7; Isaiah 8:15, 40:27,
45:14, 45:15, 57:15, 59:1, 64:10; Job 23:3, 34:29; and Jeremiah 29:10.
2 See, for instance, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone (Philadelphia:
Jewish Publication Society, 1951), chapter 16, “The Hiding God.”

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