•  6
    Thinking about Ethical Politics: Gandhi’s Spirituality versus Levinas’s Philosophy
    International Journal of Hindu Studies 27 (3): 361-375. 2023.
    In 1962, Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995) was asked about the political implications of his ethics and the possible similarity between his philosophy and the writing of Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948). They both were aware of the considerable tensions between politics and ethics. Both tried to construct ethical politics, and both thought about the ethical aspects of politics. The differences were obvious. Gandhi was an Indian thinker who embraced Hinduism, Christian ethics, Western philosophy, and Le…Read more
  •  48
    Ethics Responsibility Dialogue The Meaning of Dialogue in Lévinas's Philosophy
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 50 (4): 619-638. 2016.
    This article examines the concept of dialogue in the philosophy of Emmanuel Lévinas, with a focus on the context of education. Its aim is to create a conversation between the Lévinasian theory and the theories of other philosophers, especially Martin Buber, in an effort to highlight the ethical significance that Lévinas assigns to the act of dialogue itself. As a philosopher whose essential interest was trained on the infinite ethical responsibility of the human subject, Lévinas places major emp…Read more
  • Linking Redemption to Prayer
    In Luca Bertolino & Irene Kajon (eds.), Gebet, Praxis, Erlösung / Prayer, Praxis, Redemption, Karl Alber. pp. 60-78. 2021.
  •  1
    The Charm of F. Rosenzweig’s Philosophy
    RUDN Journal of Philosophy 26 (3): 485-492. 2022.
    The philosophical works of F. Rosenzweig have particular meaning for both academic and existential inquiries and interests, as he deeply re-observes the religious life of Judaism and Christianity through the reflection of human existence. Fear of death, observation of Plato’s understanding of Eros, overcoming of atheism of Goethe in the experience of faith - these key motives form a challenging discourse of Rosenzweig’s theological and philosophical thought, which invites reader into a truly cha…Read more
  •  1
    This article will present Franz Rosenzweig's attitude toward the religions and cultures of East Asia, and his philosophical response to the trend of German Orientalism, and especially to Martin Buber’s Ecstatic Confessions. Rosenzweig's references to India and China appeared systematically in the first book of the Star of Redemption, once for the analysis of metaphysics, second for the account of metalogic, and the third time as part of the discussion of meta-ethics. A close look at Rosenzweig’s…Read more
  •  2
    The Immense House of Postcards
    Forum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy 21 (1): 43-71. 2016.
    The subject of tradition engaged both Emmanuel Lévinas and Jacques Derrida in many of their writings, which explore both the philosophical and cultural significance of tradition and the particular significance of the latter in a specifically Jewish context. Lévinas devoted a few of his Talmudic essays to the subject, and Derrida addressed the issue from the perspective of different philosophical and religious traditions. This article uses the writings of these two thinkers to propose a new way o…Read more
  •  3
    Levinasian thoughts on witnessing: Forgiveness, guilt, and reconciliation
    South African Journal of Philosophy 35 (3): 345-358. 2016.
    The Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that operated in South Africa in the mid-1990s represented an exceptional political effort to overcome the country’s intricate blood-stained history using a mechanism based on foundations of forgiveness in a Christian sense, public trial in a symbolic sense, and commissions of inquiry in a political and legal sense. These commissions constituted one of the most daring and impressive attempts in the history of world politics to transform the national socia…Read more
  •  5
    The Immense House of Postcards
    Forum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy 21 (1): 43-71. 2016.
    The subject of tradition engaged both Emmanuel Lévinas and Jacques Derridainmanyoftheirwritings,whichexploreboththephilosophicalandcultural significance of tradition and the particular significance of the latter in a specifically Jewish context. Lévinas devoted a few of his Talmudic essays to the subject, and Derrida addressed the issue from the perspective of different philosophical and religious traditions. This article uses the writings of these two thinkers to propose a new way of thinking a…Read more
  •  48
    R. Abraham Isaac Kook and the Opening Passage of “The War”
    Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 25 (2): 256-278. 2017.
    _ Source: _Volume 25, Issue 2, pp 256 - 278 Rabbi Abraham Isaac Ha-Cohen Kook’s essay “The War” is a text of immense importance with respect to the development of ideological militaristic writing in religious Zionism. The essay was first published in the book _Orot me-Ofel_, edited by R. Kook’s son, Rabbi Zvi Yehudah Kook. In this study, I wish to distinguish the views presented in the notebooks and collected writings of R. Kook from his position as set forth in the edited essay, which bears the…Read more
  •  40
    Rebuilding the feminine in Levinas's talmudic Readings
    Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 12 (3): 1-32. 2003.
    This study presents a reconsideration of Levinas's concept of the feminine. This reconsideration is facilitated by a philosophically informed analysis of Levinas's Talmudic readings on that subject.The innovation of this research is in its methodology, which combines the two corpora of Levinas' writings as important components of an integrated system of thought. Two main phenomena are derived here from Levinas' Talmudic readings and raise main principles of his ethics. In the heart of the discus…Read more
  • Joseph: The Voice from the Coffin
    In Yael Lin (ed.), Levinas Faces Biblical Figures, Lexington Books. 2014.
    The place of “Jewish wisdom” in Emmanuel Levinas’ writings has been widely discussed among scholars, with a great emphasis placed on Levinas’ engagement with the Talmud and the philosophical possibilities to be uncovered in Talmudic interpretation, as well as the ethical insights that Talmudic wisdom contributes to the discourse of the philosophy of ethics. The Hebrew Bible does not occupy a central role in Levinas’ writings, and despite the many references to the Bible as a book and to biblica…Read more
  •  935
    Rebuilding the Feminine in Levinas's Talmudic Readings
    Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 12 (3). 2003.
    This study presents a reconsideration of Levinas’s concept of the feminine. This reconsideration facilitated by a philosophically informed analysis of Levinas’s Talmudic readings on that subject. The innovation of this research is based on the methodology which combined the two corpuses of Levinas’ writings as important parts of his thought. Two main phenomena are derived from Levinas’ Talmudic readings and arouse main principles of his ethics. In the hearth of the discussion on Eros stated the …Read more
  •  23
    The Philosophical Meaning of the Names of God
    Revue Internationale de Philosophie 1 (1): 115-135. 2006.
    Levinas’ thought concerning God continues the philosophical discussion – how to speak about the divine within human language. His thought takes into account Heidegger’s Ontology and Rosenzweig’s exploration of revelation and the meaning of Divinity. Levinas sees the meaning of God’s names as an ethical commandment toward the Beyond – toward the other person. By using the Talmudic writings, Levinas describes the custom of Jewish wisdom to talk about God’s names and attributes as referring the sub…Read more
  • Love Discourse: Rosenzweig vs. Plato
    In Yossi Turner, Y. Amir & M. Brasser (eds.), Faith, Truth and Reason - The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig, K. Alber. 2012.
    My aim in this study is to unfold the profound relationship thatnonetheless exists between the world of Rosenzweig and that of Plato. Plato’s presence in The Star of Redemption is greater than onemight think by relying solely on the references found in the index. Inaccordance with this suggested relationship, one might propose areligious interpretation of that youthful pronouncement made byRosenzweig, to which, indeed, the expression of „faith“ is appropri-ate: „Ich glaube an Πλάτων [Plato]“. No…Read more
  •  13
    Ethical Dwelling and the Glory of Bearing Witness
    Levinas Studies 10 (1): 221-248. 2015.
    This article addresses the notion of bearing witness and the responsibility bore by the witness, by a careful reading of Emmanuel Levinas's writings. According to Levinas, one of the major experiences of modern man, is the preference of being a "witness" than being a "participant." The phenomenological investigation of bearing witness reveals the witness's involvement in the act and the occurrence that he witnessed. My aim here is to better understand the modern human condition, in which the en…Read more
  •  6
    Levinas Faces Biblical Figures (edited book)
    with Ephraim Meir, Edna Langenthal, Gary D. Mole, Elisabeth Goldwyn, Catherine Chalier, Eli Schonfeld, Michal Ben-Naftali, Richard A. Cohen, and Tamar Abramov
    Lexington Books. 2014.
    Levinas Faces Biblical Figures captures the drama of the encounter between a great philosopher and a text of primary importance. The book considers the ways in which Levinas's thoughts can open up the biblical text to requestioning, and how the biblical text can inform our reading of Levinas
  •  761
    This article aims to explore the philosophical meaning of pregnancy and maternity in the writ-ings of R. Soloveitchik and Emmanuel Lévinas. They both make a phenomenological enquiry into these phenomena, by looking on the biological aspect and the emotional aspects. R. Solove-itchik suggests a spiritual interpretation concerning the meaning of pregnancy, which is both biological and spiritual. He attempts to differentiate between the natural parenthood and the spiritual parenthood. Lévinas gives…Read more
  •  22
    One of the riddles that enthrall those who study modern Jewish thought is how Maimonides attained such high stature among thinkers so far removed from one another – medievals and moderns, rationalists and mystics. One may fairly say that Maimonides was the religious and philosophical anchor for a stunning variety of thinkers, but it appears that more than they seek to understand Maimonides’ views, they find in him an ethical and religious model that enables them to create and formulate their own…Read more
  •  1
    Emmanuel Levinas: Hermeneutics, Ethics, and Art
    Journal of Literature and Art Studies 5. 2015.
    "Art does not know a particular type of reality; it contrasts with knowledge. It is the very event of obscuring, a descent of the night, an invasion of shadow" (Levinas 1989, 132). Levinas chooses these words to depict the role, action, and essence of art. Terms such as "obscuring," "descent of the night," and "shadow" serve as modes of a consciousness that is different from, if not the opposite of, "enlightened" knowledge, which is signified, in contrast, by terms such as "light" and "revelatio…Read more
  • This study attempts to provide access to the thinking about poverty and the poor reflected in classic rabbinic literature, focusing on a single passage in Leviticus Rabbah that addresses the verse (Lev. 25:25) beginning “should your brother come to ruin.” This passage affords us an opportunity to take a penetrating look into the meaning of poverty, and into its theological and metaphysical contexts, which lie beyond the social and economic issue of poverty. Rabbinic literature comes to us in a…Read more
  •  22
    Messianism’s contribution to political philosophy: peace and war in Levinas’s Totality and Infinity
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 81 (3): 291-313. 2017.
    This article examines the impact of messianic thought on political philosophy in the theory of philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas’s work enables us to consider the political not only in terms of contemplation of the tension between the political and the ethical and of the ethical limits of politics but as an attempt to create ethical political thought. Discussion of the tension between the political and the ethical intensifies in wartime and in the context of militaristic thinking. At the sam…Read more