Levinas, Judaism, and the Feminine: The Silent Footsteps of Rebecca (Indiana Series in the Philosoph

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  • Levinas, Judaism, and the Feminine: The Silent Footsteps of Rebecca
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    • That is, the feminine is the condition of the possibility of ethics" But is Katz's thesis supported by Levinas's texts?

    To be sure, the woman makes the dwelling hospitable and makes it a home, a welcoming place, so that one may feel at home with himself chez soi. But the woman does not require that the home be open to the stranger. In fact, home on the contrary serves eroticism, which happens behind the closed door, literally and figuratively. Ethics, however, is a different matter. Home becomes a place no longer for oneself but for the stranger who visits him from outside. In ethics home becomes a place of hospitality open to the world.

    Moreover, egoism, not the woman, is the "condition" for the possibility of ethics, if we have to put it that way.

    Levinas, Judaism, and the Feminine: The Silent Footsteps of Rebecca

    Enjoyment, the separation of the ego from the elements from which one lives and draws enjoyment vivre de Furthermore, the transcendence of caress and eros, "the cooing and laughter," the sensibility that transcends "the [empirical] sexual difference," is of a different kind than that of ethics.

    The former does not offer the condition for the possibility of the latter. Because in ethics the sexual difference makes no difference. The face is the Other that commands beyond and irrespective of the identity or race politics.

    If in Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority the figure of woman remains hidden behind the ethical as Katz would have it , in Otherwise Than Being, or, Beyond Essence , it is pushed forward as she argues as the prominent metaphor to stand for the ethical relation Levinas calls "substitution. She does speak of the possibility of the mother risking her own life in giving birth to a new life and the unelected demand the mother fulfills in feeding the child in and out of her womb. The passivity of maternity, as Levinas describes, is fully recognized.

    But Katz does not go on to relate maternity with other key concepts Levinas employs that are closely related to maternity, such as "the other in me" or "the other in the same" the Rimbaud's expression Levinas adopts crucially for his own purposes, OB , , , , , , , , incarnation, the self "emptying" itself kenosis , the self standing under the weight of the world sub-jectum , the self spending itself beyond its capacity, the expenditure of debt one never agreed to incurred or could pay back, etc.

    Levinas's metaphors work in conjunction with other associated metaphors in his texts. They keep coming at you in an unending series of waives that hit the shore, so as to say more than and beyond the metaphors themselves--and repeatedly.

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    But Katz does not go on to relate maternity with other key concepts Levinas employs that are closely related to maternity, such as "the other in me" or "the other in the same" the Rimbaud's expression Levinas adopts crucially for his own purposes, OB , , , , , , , , incarnation, the self "emptying" itself kenosis , the self standing under the weight of the world sub-jectum , the self spending itself beyond its capacity, the expenditure of debt one never agreed to incurred or could pay back, etc. No trivia or quizzes yet. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. I think both Jews and Christians can agree on this central point. Levinas, Judaism, and the Feminine: Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. The passivity of maternity, as Levinas describes, is fully recognized.

    For Levinas, maternity, face, the Jew, incarnation, substitution, etc. They are strictly not metaphors, as he says, because they say more than metaphors, beyond the said. Katz's initial attempt to insist on the figure of woman as the empirical runs into a problem of reading Levinas's key concepts too literally, thus forcing her to address what seems to me to be a non-issue: This view of maternity and of ethics is not a 'pro-life' position, in the current sense of the term" Rather, she continues, "the prescription is for all of us men and women to become like the maternal body" , italics hers.

    Katz's having had so say this indicates the problem she has created for herself, namely, reading Levinas too literally, while rejecting Peperzak's suggestion that the figure of the feminine should be considered as a metaphor As I already stated, Levinas's key terms are more than metaphors. They perform not merely the function of metaphors; they say more than what metaphors are capable of saying.

    The feminine, the face, the law, etc. They are transcendent beyond the metaphoric transfer or "transportation," as the ancient Greeks would say. Lastly, one of the Biblical stories Katz discusses is the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac the akedah. According to one particular rubinic tradition, the story is fill in: And yet, in order to obey God's command Abraham proceeds to sacrifice Isaac by choking him with his hands. That's why the angel calls to Abraham the second time: Katz offers an alternate supplement, one that is in the vein of Levinasian ethics: Levinas does not say these but only argues that in disobeying God Abraham loved "the Torah more than God," the Torah what commands: Katz then discusses Derrida's interpretation of the akedah , as provided in his book, The Gift of Death , in which Derrida points out the contradiction in and thus the impossibility of ethics in having to choose between the general and the absolute responsibility Abraham faces and another contradiction in the tension Abraham feels among his responsibility to Sarah, to Isaac, and to God, and thus leading to the problem of justice inherent in ethics Since I am not happy with any of these interpretations, I'd like to propose my own interpretation of the story.

    It is a Christian interpretation that only deepens Levinas's concept of substitution. I think Levinas is more Christian than he realizes; just as Jesus and Paul were the proto Levinasians. The akedah is about the self-sacrifice. Get to Know Us. English Choose a language for shopping.

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