Ethical Infinity and the Phenomenology of the Scroll: Levinasian Dimensions in the Philosophy of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

This paper examines philosophical intersections between R. Sacks and EmmanuelLevinas, arguing that despite significant differences, Levinas’ thought fundamentally shaped Sacks’ ethical and hermeneutical framework. Conceptual bridges include their shared response to World War II’s moral catastrophe, which catalyzedboth thinkers’ formulation of ethics as “first philosophy”; parallel critiques of religious fundamentalism as neglecting the ethical imperative toward the Other;and their emphasis on the “holiness of otherness” as central to religious understanding. The analysis explores how Sacks deployed a phenomenological understanding of Torah that echoes Levinas’ approach to textuality, wherein sacred text exists as ethical encounter. Despite stylistic differences, Sacks’ philosophicalproject can be understood as a distinctive articulation of Levinasian ethics—translating phenomenological complexity into accessible Jewish religious wisdom while preserving the radical ethical demand at its core.