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

PREFACE

PREFACE I wrote the initial draft of this book well before my pregnancy and the birth of my first child. However, I undertook substantial revisions to the manuscript during my pregnancy and well into the first year of my daughter’s life. My relationship with my newborn, who then became a crawling baby, and then finally a toddler, transformed the relationship that I have to Levinas ’s writings—it is not simply an intellectual endeavor or academic enterprise to engage his project, if it ever was simply that. Levinas’s distinction between erotic love and ethical love appealed to me intellectually, but it was not until I had a child of my own that the truth of this distinction became utterly apparent. My child claimed me in ways that I could never have imagined and that I had never experienced. Although the pain of childbirth has subsided and I can no longer remember for how many nights there were feedings every two hours, I know I experienced all of it. Of course, I also thought, “this too shall pass,” only to realize that 2 .. feedings were far easier than keeping an eye on a toddler who is exploring the world. But with the loss of ease came the intensity of joy. This child is not simply my responsibility. She is the joy of my life. And the movement between joy and responsibility is wondrous. Levinas is right to name the parent-child relationship the ethical relationship par excellence. A parent’s relationship to her child does not end; nor is it part of an economy of debt. My responsibility to my child is never finished, and my daughter is not responsible to me in return. I do not mean to trivialize the intellectual pursuit either of philosophy in general or of Levinas’s project in particular. But Levinas’s writings are not simply intellectual exercises for those who read them. They speak to us— and they speak to each of us differently. I am sure that there are times in this book where Levinas’s thought ends and my own begins, even if unacknowledged as such. One might argue that a more careful reading—and writing—would mean being clear about my exegesis of Levinas’s writings and my use of them to advance my own philosophical position. But my task in this book does not exclude either of these ways of writing. My writing has a dual role. The first is to explicate Levinas’s thought such that one can see three things: (1) what he means by the feminine; (2) what relationship the Jewish sources have to his writing; and (3) how this relationship in- fluences his characterization of the feminine. The second role is to go beyond his writings and explore what they mean for both the past and the present, for reading the stories of the women of the Hebrew Bible and for women who live today. I embark on this second task always bearing in mind that going beyond his work does not mean leaving his work behind. Levinas’s discussions of ethics, Judaism, the feminine, and maternity influenced how I think. The birth of my daughter deepened their meanings for me even further. I am grateful to be claimed by my daughter such that Levinas ’s writings can speak to me as they do. This book is dedicated to her. x | Preface ...