Stanford University Press Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic Turn: Philosophy and Jewish Thought (Cultural Memory in the Present)

Product Description In this rich intellectual history of the French\-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas\x27s Talmudic lectures in Paris, Ethan Kleinberg addresses Levinas\x27s Jewish life and its relation to his philosophical writings while making an argument for the role and importance of Levinas\x27s Talmudic lessons. Pairing each chapter with a related Talmudic lecture, Kleinberg uses the distinction Levinas presents between \x22\x22God on Our Side\x22\x22 and \x22\x22God on God\x27s Side\x22\x22 to provide two discrete and at times conflicting approaches to Levinas\x27s Talmudic readings. One is historically situated and argued from \x22\x22our side\x22\x22 while the other uses Levinas\x27s Talmudic readings themselves to approach the issues as timeless and derived from \x22\x22God on God\x27s own side.\x22\x22 Bringing the two approaches together, Kleinberg asks whether the ethical message and moral urgency of Levinas\x27s 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\x27s turn to and use of Talmud. About the Author 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, 19271961 (2005) and Haunting History: For a Deconstructive Approach to the Past (SUP, 2017).