The Fence and the Neighbor traces the contours of two thinkers, Emmanuel Levinas and Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who crossed the divide between Talmud and philosophy ‘proper.’ Adam Zachary Newton shows how the question of nationalism that has so long haunted Western philosophy—the question of who belongs within its ‘fence, ‘ and who outside—has long been the concern of Jewish thought and its preoccupation with law, limits, and the place of Israel among the nations. To those unfamiliar with Talmudic thought Newton shows how deeply its language and concerns shape Levinas. He also offers an introduction to Leibowitz, a conservative religious thinker who was an outspoken gadfly and radically critical voice in the Israeli political scene. Together, their common origin in Jewish Eastern Europe, a common concern with national allegiance, and the common fence of religious Judaism that makes them intellectual neighbors are voiced in penetrating and original dialogue.
Table of Content
Preface: Fences and NeighborsAcknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Signing the World
1. Aggadic Man: Levinas and the Neighbor as (Br)Otherhood
2. Mishurat ha Din: Leibowitz, Nationhood, and the Fence of Halakhah
Epilogue: The Present of ‘Future Jewish Thought’
Notes
Works Consulted
General Index
Scriptual Index
About the author
Adam Zachary Newton is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin and the author ofNarrative Ethics and
Facing Black and Jew: Literature as Public Space in Twentieth-Century America.
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Language English ● Format PDF ● Pages 288 ● ISBN 9780791491447 ● File size 15.9 MB ● Publisher State University of New York Press ● Published 2012 ● Downloadable 24 months ● Currency EUR ● ID 7665473 ● Copy protection Adobe DRM
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