T

he Talmud tells the 
story of Yosef, the son 
of Rabbi Yehoshua ben 
Levi, who was “dead” for 
a short period of time 
and then was resuscitat-
ed, what we might call a 
near death experience.
When Yosef recov-
ered enough to hear the 
voice of his father by his 
bedside, we read, “His 
father asked, ‘
What did 
you see?’
” The young 
man responded with fear 
in his eyes: “I saw an 
upside-down world.” 
His father, resting his hand 
upon his son’
s shoulder, com-
forted him and said, “My son, 
have no fear. You saw a clear 
world.” Meaning, you saw 
things as they really should be, 
the world — our world — 
really is upside-down, “bet-
ter you know that, than you 
should live in fear.”
Rabbi Yehoshua lived in the 
third century in Israel at a time 
when Rome dominated and 
devastated the Jewish commu-
nity. It was a world of “totality” 
instead of a world of “infinity.” 
A world that attempted to 
reduce everything to “same-
ness,” rather than to respect 
one’
s “otherness.” It was a 
world where might made right.
It is in this context that we 
can understand his words 
to his son. “Yes, my son, the 
upside-down world in which 
we live is harsh, but that is not 
the way God wants our world 
to be.” The vision you had is 
the opposite of the way we live 
now, but your vision is the way 
God wants us to live.
Emanuel Levinas, a 20th 
century French Jewish philos-
opher, looked at the Western 

world and realized that there 
are two main influences: the 
Hebrew Bible and Western 
philosophy. 
Moreover, he believed 
that there is a fundamen-
tal difference in these 
world views. Levinas felt 
much of Western phi-
losophy was epitomized 
by Rene Descartes, who 
wrote, “I think, therefore 
I am.” For Levinas, this 
was a world of “totali-
ty” instead of a world 
of “infinity,” a world 
that attempts to reduce 
everything to “sameness” rath-
er than to respect one’
s “oth-
erness.” Levinas wrote that “I 
think” comes down to “I can” 
— to an appropriation of what 
is, to an exploitation of reality. 
It is, he said, “a philosophy of 
power.” 
For Levinas, the fundamen-
tal premise on which Judaism 
is based is the revelation at 
Sinai, which we read in Yitro 
this week, when God calls 
to the Israelites. That call 
demands a response. 
Revelation teaches us how to 
interact with the other. Other 
is the other person as well as 
God. This face-to-face encoun-
ter at Sinai with the other 
becomes the basis for all future 
relationships. I stop thinking 
only of myself and begin to be 
concerned with others. What 
comes out of this encounter 
is a responsibility toward the 
other — that responsibility 
being ethical behavior, leading 
to a “clear world” that is not 
“upside down.” 

Rabbi Robert Gamer is the rabbi at 

Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak 

Park. 

Parshat Yitro: 

Exodus 

18:1-20:23; 

Isaiah 

6:1-7:6; 9:5-6.

Rabbi Robert 
Gamer

40 | FEBRUARY 13 • 2020 

Spirit
torah portion

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