Conversations with Emmanuel Levinas, 1983-1994: 1983-1994

1. Yom Kippur, the Day for Forgiveness

113 113 1 Yom Kippur, the Day for Forgiveness YOM KIPPUR AND THE JEWISH UNIVERSALITY OF FORGIVENESS THE JEWISH YEAR RECOUNTS as it were holy history from the creation of the world commemorated in Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem on the ninth day of the month of Av (70 CE), which also marks the day of the expulsion of Spanish Jewry in 1492. Rosh Hashanah, which precedes and announces Yom Kippur, has a universal character that no other Jewish festival has to the same degree. This festival, in all its solemnity, is the “Day of Judgment for the living.” As we read at the beginning of the talmudic Tractate Rosh Hashanah (16a), “On New Year’s Day all that come into 114 Conversations with Emmanuel Levinas the world pass before God like flocks of sheep.”1 This anniversary of the day of man’s creation is also the day on which, according to tradition, Adam disobeyed God, was judged and forgiven. Beyond all religious particularism, Rosh Hashanah is meant for all human beings. From the outset, the first festival of the Jewish year bears witness to the universal theological and liturgical responsibility of Israel. The Torah does not just found the universality of Revelation, it anchors humanity’s origin within it, since far from beginning with Abraham, it roots humanity in Adam, and therefore in the covenant with the Unique One. The significance of the Torah’s message—beyond the people of Israel—is therefore quite simply human in that it concerns the whole of humanity. Far from having disobeyed God’s word, the Jewish people were appointed its guardian; the stiff-necked people became responsible for the nations toward God. But what sort of responsibility is at issue? The messianic responsibility of every person in Israel, in other words, the responsibility for others on account of the covenant: “You shall be to Me a kingdom of Priests and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:6). When the people of Israel, when the children of Israel will finally have heard the Devar Adonai, the Word of God, only then will the eyes of all people, of all tongues, of all countries, be opened and they will see Israel like a dynasty of priests, a holy nation, ve-goy kadosh. Part 3 was originally published in Saint Cheron, Chalendar, and Mahfouz, Le pardon. 1. [This translation follows Saint Cheron’s French; see also Mishnah Tractate Rosh Hashanah 1:2. The Soncino edition of the Babylonian Talmud is closer to the original Aramaic: “At New Year all creatures pass before Him [God] like children of Maron,” an expression clarified by the Gemara (18a) as meaning, in Babylonian, “like a flock of sheep.”—Trans.] Yom Kippur 115 How does the destiny of Israel and Judaism differ from that of other religions and other peoples? It differs in that the Jewish people are destined to have a unique responsibility. A universal vocation. Just as the Merciful One forgives all Israel once a year, on Yom Kippur, so there is no redemption for Israel unless it is one. No one can be saved alone. “Kol Ysrael yesh lahem ‘helek le’olam ha’ba: All Israel have a portion in the world to come,” as it is written in the Tractate Sanhedrin (90a). We have no solitary salvation. Which is why it is only when our responsibility has become universal, extended to all Israel and to all peoples, that we will really have understood Moses’ words: “For this commandment that I command you today—it is not hidden from you and it is not distant. It is not in heaven....Nor is it across the sea....Rather, the matter is very near to you—in your mouth and your heart—to perform it” (Deut. 30:11–14). It is in the human heart and uniquely there that the Torah lives, the Word of God as he revealed it to humanity , and first to Israel. But to hear this voice, one first needs to listen to it. This is why every observant Jew recites “Shema Ysrael, Hear, O Israel” three times a day. The liturgy of Rosh Hashanah teaches us that on this anniversary of the day the world was created, all humankind is summoned before God’s court: The great shofar will be sounded and a still, thin sound will be heard. Angels will hasten...