Martin Buber's 10 Rungs: Collected Hasidic Sayings

According to Hasidic lore, the various ways in which men learn to perfect themselves are the "rungs" on the ladder leading to the realm of heaven. It is said: "No limits are set to the ascent of man, and to each and every one the highest stands open. Here it is only your personal choice that decides." The tales and aphorisms retold here by Martin Buber belong to the teachings of Hasidism, the mystical movement that swept Eastern European Jewry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.