Nine Talmudic Readings

Rating:
Summary: A Philosopher Reads The Talmud
Review: Emmanual Levinas (1906-95) was a contintental philosopher, credited with introducing the thinking of Husserl and Heidegger to France. He was raised in the Lithuanian Jewish community, however, and that heritage became increasingly important to him in the 1930s, culminating in his study of the Talmud following WWII. The nine lectures collected in this volume were originally delivered by Levinas between 1963 and 1975. In the guise of commentaries on specific passages of Talmud, these lectures represent Levinas' attempt to "translate" the values and the concerns of the Talmud into the terms of 20th Century phenomenological discourse.

Levinas' main concern is with the ethical aspect of Judaism, and the universal role it (in its specificity) plays. Each lecture begins with a passage from the Talmud, which Levinas interprets line-by-line. Although the interpretation often strays far afield from the plain meaning (and even, sometimes, beyond the symbolic or didactic meaning) of the passage under consideration, I do not think that the rabbis would disagree with Levinas' conclusions. Most of the lectures ultimately turn to one's radical responsibility to and for the other. It is not enough to be good oneself: "the righteous are responsible for evil before anyone else is. They are responsible because they have not been righteous enough to make their justice spread and abolish injustice." (186) Levinas' interpretation of the story of the Gibeonites is particularly thought-provoking in these times: the Gibeonites demanded talion (a life for a life) for the wrongs done to them by Saul; in doing so, by failing to show mercy toward the other, they excluded themselves from Israel.

Although I found much to think about in these lectures and may reread them, they are *not* easy to follow and are often written in the almost impenatrable prose of 20th Century continental philosophy. The translator, Annette Aronowicz, provides a very useful introduction to Levinas, his thought in general, and what he is attempting to do in these lectures, but even with the introduction, I would not recommend this to someone who has no familiarity with philosophical discussion. Familiarity with the Talmud is not required.