Benny Lévy

During these six years, Lévy worked with Sartre, and the two men produced four books until Sartre's death. While working with Sartre, Lévy began to discover Judaism, initially through his research into the Kabbalah, which he conducted with his mentor. Their work together created a stir among the circle that surrounded Sartre, because Sartre had begun introducing new ideas and terms that evoked religious and, more specifically, Jewish concepts, such as Redemption and Messianism. Some, including Simone de Beauvoir began accusing Lévy of brainwashing Sartre and faking his writings. After this Ms de Beauvoir and Mr Levy were no longer on speaking terms. Two months before his death, Sartre responded to these critics, claiming that he had indeed abandoned some of his earlier ideas. ^{[citation needed]} In 1978, Lévy encountered Levinas, and started learning Hebrew and beginning Talmudic studies.

Starting in 1975, he taught at the

Benny Lévy embraced Jewish Orthodoxy, and began to study in a yeshiva in Strasbourg. He finally immigrated to Israel in 1997, where he established the Institut d'études lévinassiennes in Jerusalem along with Bernard-Henri Lévy and Alain Finkielkraut, and learned with Rabbi Moshe Shapira. He died suddenly during the holiday of Sukkot in 2003. In Etre Juif, he wrote:

To be Jewish. To be, in an absolutely singular manner... a thought of the Return. The Return to the Sinaï... The thought of the Return (la pensée du Retour) requires a critique of the atheology of the modern jew . Theology of the silence of God after Auschwitz, critique of theodicy, finally return to the notion of absolute Evil, these are the points through which one must pass in a critical manner. In this sense, this book addresses itself at any man, insofar as he is still sensible to the question of the origin of evil.^[3]

Bibliography

• Alain Finkielkraut, Benny Lévy, Le Livre et les Livres, essai sur la laïcité, Verdier, 2006.
• Jean-Paul Sartre & Benny Lévy, L'espoir maintenant : les entretiens de 1980, présentés et suivis du Mot de la fin par Benny Lévy, Publication : Paris : Verdier, 1991.
• Philon en regard des pharisiens de l'intériorité, Publication: Lille 3: ANRT, 1986 Description matérielle: 3 microfiches; 105x148 mm Note(s): Th. 3e cycle: Hist. de la philos.: Paris 1: 1985.
• Être Juif, Verdier, 2003.
• La confusion des temps, Verdier, 2004
• La cérémonie de la naissance, Verdier, 2005
• Le Logos et la lettre: Philon d'Alexandrie en regard des pharisiens, Publication: Lagrasse: Verdier, 1988.
• Le meurtre du pasteur: critique de la vision politique du monde, Paris: B. Grasset: Verdier, 2002.
• Le Nom de l'homme : dialogue avec Sartre, Publication: Lagrasse: Verdier, 1984.
• On a raison de se révolter, sous le pseudonyme de Pierre Victor, avec Jean-Paul Sartre et Philippe Gavi, Gallimard, collection "La France sauvage", 1974.
• "Today's Hope: Conversations with Sartre". Telos 44 (Summer 1980). New York: Telos Press.
• Visage continu: la pensée du retour chez Emmanuel Lévinas, Publication: Lagrasse: Verdier, 1998.

References