The Fence and the Neighbor: Emmanuel Levinas, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, and Israel among the Nations

Adam Zachary Newton

feb 2012 · State University of New York Press

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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.

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Adam Zachary Newton is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of Narrative Ethics and Facing Black and Jew: Literature as Public Space in Twentieth-Century America.