Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic Turn: Philosophy and Jewish Thought

Ethan Kleinberg

Published by Stanford University Press 2021

Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic Turn

Philosophy and Jewish Thought

Ethan Kleinberg

In the series Cultural Memory in the Present

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503629608

Overview
Contents

About this book

In this rich intellectual history of the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic lectures in Paris, Ethan Kleinberg addresses Levinas's Jewish life and its relation to his philosophical writings while making an argument for the role and importance of Levinas's Talmudic lessons.

Pairing each chapter with a related Talmudic lecture, Kleinberg uses the distinction Levinas presents between "God on Our Side" and "God on God's Side" to provide two discrete and at times conflicting approaches to Levinas's Talmudic readings. One is historically situated and argued from "our side" while the other uses Levinas's Talmudic readings themselves to approach the issues as timeless and derived from "God on God's own side." Bringing the two approaches together, Kleinberg asks whether the ethical message and moral urgency of Levinas's Talmudic lectures can be extended beyond the texts and beliefs of a chosen people, religion, or even the seemingly primary unit of the self.

Touching on Western philosophy, French Enlightenment universalism, and the Lithuanian Talmudic tradition, Kleinberg provides readers with a boundary-pushing investigation into the origins, influences, and causes of Levinas's turn to and use of Talmud.

Author / Editor information

Ethan Kleinberg is the Class of 1958 Distinguished Professor of History and Letters at Wesleyan University. He is the author of Generation Existential: Heidegger's Philosophy in France, 1927–1961 (2005) and Haunting History: For a Deconstructive Approach to the Past (SUP, 2017).

Reviews

Sarah Hammerschlag:
"A boundary-pushing, interdisciplinary work, challenging scholars and students to think through and with the audacity of Levinas's claim for alterity."

Peter Gordon:
"Can we read Levinas's work as wholly immanent to the history of philosophy, or must we see it as the worldly trace of a transcendent truth? Kleinberg explores this contest between history and revelation without presuming to declare the victor. A venturesome and ingeniously crafted book that confirms the author's leading role in modern European intellectual history."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Chronology of Levinas’s Talmudic Lectures at the Colloque des intellectuels juifs de langue française Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Introduction: God on Our Side / God on God’s Own Side Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Being-Jewish, from Vilna to Paris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
2 The Alliance Israélite Universelle, Shushani, and the École Normale Israélite Universelle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
3 The Talmudic Lectures at the Colloque des intellectuels juifs de langue française Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
4 Hebrew into Greek: Translation and Exemplarism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
Conclusion: Constitutive Dissymmetry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Cultural Memory in the Present Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 248
Keywords: Levinas; France; Holocaust; Judaism; Talmud; ethics; Jewish education

eBook

Published: October 19, 2021
ISBN: 9781503629608