Ethan Kleinberg

In/finite Time: Tracing Transcendence to Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic Lectures

Abstract In this article, I attempt to trace Emmanuel Levinass notion of transcendence and its relation to infinity to his Talmudic lectures to offer both a philosophical diagnosis as well as a counter to the essentialist logic of what Levinas considers the traditional or ‘metaphysical’ concept of time. This opens my speculative argument up to two levels of interpretation as it requires an historical investigation into the cultural context that conditioned Levinass particular understanding of transcendence and infinity in relation to his turn toward Talmud and sacred Jewish texts in the years following World War Two. But it also requires that we take seriously the critique of history as inadequate to such a task that is inherent in Levinass presentation of these concepts. All of this hinges on the role and place of ‘time’ in Levinas. I consider Levinass category of ‘time immemorial’ as a counter to the essentialist logic of what Levinas considers the traditional or ‘metaphysical’ concept of time which I claim is at the core of the ‘realist’ attitude toward the practice of history founded upon the categories of agency, experience, memory, testimony, and most recently the importance of ‘presence’. This in turn leads me to propose two possible alternatives, through Freud and Derrida, that conserve Levinass critique of the essentialist understanding of time uncoupled from any transcendent or theological mechanism.