New Talmudic Readings

by Emmanuel Levinas

This small but important volume contains three of Emmanuel Levinas's last major lectures on the Talmud, originally presented in 1974, 1988 and 1989. These three readings continue and augment much of Levinas's thought as presented in the earlier works, Nine Talmudic Readings, In the Time of the Nations and Beyond the Verse. These exegetical writings bear on his ever-present concern with ethics, the central focus of his philosophy. One of the most remarkable consequences of this focus, furthermore, is a renewal of philosophy's capacity to both respect and uncover the deepest meanings central to sacred as well as secular texts.