"The narrow ridge" — A hike in the Dolomites inspired a lifelong metaphor

 Buber once illustrated his famous metaphor of “the narrow ridge” with a reference to hiking in the Dolomites, the rugged mountain range in northern Italy near the Austrian border. Perhaps he hiked there during his sojourn in Florence when he was in his late twenties. At any rate, he wrote this to Hugo Bergmann, his lifelong friend with whom he had associated in Prague during their student days:

“We may not carry the moral into faith . . . . The moral is a shelter that faith shatters. . . . Faith . . . is a narrow way between two abysses, such as I once encountered in the Dolomites.             

       (Buber to Hugo Bergmann in 1940; see Turning to the Other 77, 99-100)

 

Seceda Ridge, Italian Dolomites

We do not know what ridge Buber hiked but this is a famous one.