And i devoted a little part of my time, not enough, not enough to try to give back the name, to give back a trice, to just a trace, to just figure the proper number to these outnumbered [inaudible] this is one thing. Another thing is more deeply to what is properly more accurately related to what i call the genius of judaism. For me to be a jew means in a way which i try to express in this book to care about the other. The question of being a jew, i often hear, people ask me what about your jewish identity. Im always embarrassed by this idea of identity because im not so sure that judaism is a matter of identity which means to be the same of ourself. The real challenge for a jew, the real stake, the real work is the relation not with the id, but with the other. And for me, the most challenging way to relate to the other is the way in which the most enigmatic prophet in my eyes, jonah, when he goes to nineveh, he goes to the proper embodiment of the absolute [inaudible] and he deals with that. And he speaks to that. He tries to save that city. For me being a jew means that all my life, at least all the part of my life what i felt deeply has consisted in fighting, in trying to be worth again not of the memory of my father, but trying to be worth the message, the lesson of the prophet jonah. Im a little je work, faithful jew, faithful to the prophet jonah, and this book is a praise to jonah, an attempt to up fold the lesson of unfold the lesson of jonah. [inaudible] an attempt to add a tiny drop of ink to the commentary of jonah. My life has consisted in doing that, and this book which is a summary of my life is an attempt the express that. [applause] something i would, id like to preface my next question with which you may not know because most of you havent yet had a chance to read the book is that the same sense of depth and force that you hear in bernard speaking actually comes through in the week as well. It is written in a sort of pro fetic style, and prophet bic style, and so you will have that experience when you read the book, just as i know youre grateful for having it being here this evening. And i think that the arc of our conversation has followed, in some ways, the arc of the book which is beginning with antisemitism, opening into concern of others and judaism especially the way jonah illustrates it. Those of you who remember the story, god tells jonah to seek to the city of nineveh which is a hated city in ancient times and in israel, and jonah doesnt want to do it, he runs away. He gets swallowed by a fish, eventually the fish spits him out. Im skipping a few parts, but thats the idea. [laughter] and i remember a few years ago hearing a comment from a wonderful rabbi in israel who said why does jonah get to be a prophet considering the tact that he ran away from god, and he says jonah, unlike the roett of us, only unlike the rest of us, only ran away from god once. [laughter] so thats what i want to ask you is does the jewish tradition, part of the genius that you speak about here, mandate that belief in god and especially in the teaching of your teacher that being in gods presence is less theological in belief than it is sort of anthropological and living life the way that you spoke about the best moment of your life and your fathers life; that is, its ant the other its about the other as opposed to about the one. It was said in another way. Judaism was more than an optic, it was a practice. Optic meaning a look, optic a look at the sky and practice meaning link with the others. Lev nas who very often said that one of his concern was to get read as much as possible of the religion. He said judaism is not a religion. Christianism is a religion. Idolatry is a religion. There is the religious spirit behind [inaudible] the task, the target of the jew is to reduce the quantity of religion in the world. Probably one of the most important master of judaism in the 20th century wanted to stick in front of his little house of study. I am irreligious. He said that. Hes a fellow student. The experience of so many great masters of judaism is the experience not of the presence be, but of the retreat of god. My rabbi was one of the inspirers i modestly follow in this book. Has these main [inaudible] this terrible test of the world becoming suddenly devoid of god, empty of god. And then, says the rabbi, then begins the question of what the men have to do the if god retracts himself, if god quits, in a way, the world. There is a risk for the world which has been created to decreate itself. This is the most [inaudible] of the possible decay, collapse, ruin of the world due to then what do the hen and what do the men and women have to do . This is the real jewish question, according to him. His reply is that they have to pray to love an empty sky, and they have to study and to interpret add infinitum and the [inaudible] that the world will hold again to this threat and imminence of collapse because of the study of the little jews. Which is all of us. So this, for me, is the crucial question. And i try to say at thened of the book probably because im a secular jew, probably because i am not familiar with the rituals who are so important in the be jewish life, but my feeling is one of the difference between christianity and judaism is that for a jew, the biggest requirement, what is required more than anything else from a jew is less to believe than to study and to understand. And to bring an addition to intelligence to the world. Christians, a christian believes, of course. A christian has nothing more important than to champion belief, to headache the economy make the commentary commentary a christian says, okay, lets forget all these details. Lets jump to the [inaudible] the french, there is a great beauty to stop speaking, to stop thinking, just betting and jumping. My feeling is that the jew does not jump. A jew does not bet. A jew never stops commenting, studying, adding a paradox to another paradox and so on. And there is a great quote of [inaudible] who was asked one day by one of his students, a rabbi, if you had to choose between on one side a lazy student who is never here in the school but who believes and a hard worker student who uses, who abuses all the strength of his mind and sometimes of his body, who really dies on the work of the commentary but who doubts, who would you choose . He says that, of course, he would prefer not to have to choose, but if he had to, he would prefer the hard worker who devotes his life to the commentary and to revive and make more and more vibrant the letters of the text but who doubts than the lazy one who believes. And this, for me, is one of what i call in this book the genius of judaism. Im now going to ask you a very pedestrian question that a rabbi would ask. The idea that judaism is about argue mennation and study and text and ideas and searching is a beautiful and wonderful and inspiring idea, and and i dont think anybody here would object the it. But can judeo schism survive judaism survive if people dont do rituals which are specific to judaism whereas ethics is not . You can care about other people and be any religion or no religion, but nobody who prays in hebrew isnt jewish, or very, very few. So i wonder if in an attempt to sort of grab the emperion, were not losing some of the everydayness that also maintains places like this. You are right. Thats enough, thats okay. No, no, no [laughter] because you are horrified. Oh the jews have specifically a certain way of eating, of meeting and of speaking. And the relationship to hebrew, for example, is crucial. And when i say that im a little jew, i mean between other things that i am so disappointed at myself to be still so remote, so foreign to the language. But i dont agree to say that everyone take care of the other [inaudible] i dont think that this is [inaudible] at least lets say it in another way. I do believe that there is a real jewish way, very specific, comparable to nothing else to live under the shadow of the other or to put his own shadow on the other and to command to the text. The christian command, of course. The muslims command sometimes, those who are faithful to that. But there is what, being a jew means also having a very special way of [inaudible] and i would just like to take one example. S which is in the book, which is, makes a few pages of the book, and i will sum it in a few words. There is a great page of saying that the torah has to be realize as if it had a face. And he says that this verse means three things which are very specific to jews which you will not find in any christian commentator. Rashi says that the verse has to be read as if it has a face, number one means that the verse, the text is a living body. It is never frozen. It is never dead. It has nothing to do with the dead [inaudible] for example, opposed to the vibrant spirit. The letter is living as itself. Letters are living beings. Number one. Number two, rashi says this image of the face of the verse has to be taken even more seriously and literally, literally. A face is a face, he says. A face is a face of a text, okay, but the face is the face of the reader. And this verse has to be understood in a way that does, that the woman or the man who reads the verse finds his own face in the very process of the reading. To be a jew means to believe that when you read a verse, when you commit yourself to the commentary of the torah, you find your face, and you find your proper face, and you find, therefore, your proper subjectivity. The jewish idea of being related to the text means that the it is the best way to jump out of the rank of animals and to become a real subject. This is a jewish idea. And rashi says a third thing. He says that the verse has not exactly, has not to be realize as if he had only one face, but he says that it has to be read as if he had, the verse, 70 faces. And rashi wonders about this number of 70. Why . With has the verse to be read as if it had 70 faces. 70 is not 12. Is it is not the number of the tribe, it is not the number of the nations. And rashi says that the singular [inaudible] a specificity of jewish experience of the text and of the commentary. Its to address a convocation to all the nations of the world, to all the human being to find their true face in the face to face with the verse. So so this way of relating yourself, you know that better than me, rabbi, but this way of reading a verse, this way of relating ones self to the text is a very special way. You can, the christian say whatever they want or muslims. They have their own beauty. They have their own highness, of course, but not this one. And this is as specific to judaism as the use of the hebrew, as the practice of the and so on. It is a second pillar. And i dont believe in judaism, im sorry, who would just be content or who would just be happy with living a jewish life with a great rhythm of the she bat and saints day and feast and letting us leave aside this great task of all the [inaudible] asking, escorting the nations to this finding of their own face in the [inaudible] so the, before we take questions, and im going to take questions next, what you remind me of is that you, you say in this book that the great be division is not between orthodox and nonorthodox or between left and right, its between thinking jews and nonthinking jews. And i would like you to give your definition, if you would. Theres a specific story about a rabbi whos walking with his students, and he pointed to [inaudible] and he said, theyre dead. They said, what do you mean theyre dead . He said, they dont ask questions anymore. They walk on and one of the students says, rabbi, how do i know im not dead . And he goes, because you asked. [laughter] how do you make that division between whos a thinking jew and whos not a thinking jew . And im asking that seriously without being at all facetious or funny because maybe some of us are nonthinking jews, but if we hear your encouragement, we will rethink our nonthinkingness. I think. [laughter] this is, of course, the correct question. Im so angry when i hear some lazy analysis about [inaudible] i am a secular jew, and my relationship to the jewish life you are evoking is, to be frank, very light. So i dont belong to the world of the, of what of the men in black. I dont belong to this world. But im so cross, im so angry when i see them reduced to a sect of obscurity frozen in [inaudible] this is just not fair. And i invite, in the book i invite the j everything jews and those who want to be familiar with jews to overcome this stupid division. Because what does it mean to be an orthodox . Orthodox is a greek word which means to believe that there is one right opinion. And this right opinion is right forever. There are it cannot be changed, it cannot be bettered, it is frozen in its rightness. Im sorry, but my friends who are called orthodox do exactly the opposite of that. When they are [inaudible] devoting their dayses and their nights to try to go deeper in their opinion, they go exactly against temptation [inaudible] there is nobody less orthodox than those who are quoted or called orthodox. I remember my friend, maybe im sure the name is not very familiar be here, but it has been an important name for me, and it is important in the french jewishness. He was a former man of my generation. He was a leftist revolutionary in the 60s. He was a chief of the french maoists. He went in china to see not mao see tongue mao tsetung, but [inaudible] and hes a man, hes the one who [inaudible] by the way. He converted jean paul start re sartre. And in the second part of his life, at the end of the most spectacular of the history of the great jewish scholars became the man in black. He became a man in black. My dear friend who was, as he often said, he was the inventer of the palestinians. I remember when we had a discussion in france in the sorbonne, and there was always a crazy kauai at the end crazy guy at the end of the lecture who said, yeah, but what do you do with the palestinian cause. And he said, come on, please, the palestinian, you tell me. I invented them. [laughter] when i was an extreme leftist, when i was a maoist. So this man became the most devoted man of study [inaudible] he was the opposite of an orthodox. He was the contrary. There was no even if he had always the same hat, he never wore garments which had been already worn by somebody else. Treasure which which is the e formula for a genuine jewish experience. So this idea or orthodoxy is a lazy idea entertained and created by those who dont like judaism and dont understand anything to it and are not embodied by the [inaudible] but with israel, which is the love of the jewish people and of the on the other side, you have some secular jews whom i would call or the orthodox. I would not make politics here, but who repeat the same secular models as a sort of [inaudible] and they are more orthodox. So the real dividing line is not this one. The real dividing line is between those who believe that judaism is a test, is an adventure of the spirit, is a metaphysical [inaudible] and those who believe in the comfort of being a jew. To be a jew is not comfortable. Since the first day at the foot of the sinai when moses came to the, all the little jews of this time, moses knew that the had been proposed to all the nations of the secret. He knew the deal. The deal had been proposed to all the nations, that all of them refused. There are and he propose be it in despair be, of course, to the poor little jewish people who accepted the burden, who accepted to do and to hear. They knew, moses knew, except his mates who believed that it was easy. They knew that to be a jew is not an easy task, that to be a jew is not comfortable state. They knew that it is not even a state. Im not a jew. Im sorry, rabbi, but you are not a jew365 days a year, all the years of your life. There is moments where you are more jew than other. To be a jew is not just, is not a grace who fall be on your head and which you just have to entertain as sort of spiritual capital. Its much more uneasy than that. And there is, to name for the last time my master emanuel [inaudible] his most famous book which is the best introduction to his book is called difficult liberty. He could have called it, he could have entitled it difficult judaism. Difficult judaism. [applause] one of the difficulties of being a jew is asking a concise question. [laughter] so i will help you, because be youre not if youre not concise, i will cut you off. I do this largely because this isnt my synagogue and, therefore, at the end of the night, ill be going back to my place and escaping any [inaudible] for cutting you off. Larry, go ahead. Why dont we begin, and please be concise. Very concise. Bernard be, henry, i had the pleasure of introducing you a few months ago. You also say that antizionism is todays antisemitism. We had the meeting today in paris, which you probably found the conclusions of, it turns out the brits said no. Im wondering if proisrael work in europe is worthwhile, and should we end keep trying . Is proisrael work in europe productive and we make progress. No, no, its not, its not a difficult question. I believe i dont believe that all antizionists are antisemites. I dont believe, i demonstrate, i demonstrate that there is no other way of being antisemite today than being antizionist. There is no other way. And, again, it is not a creed, it is not a political claim, it is a demonstration. There is a demonstration that if your neighbor wants to be an antisemite, he has no choice, he has to be antizionist. And if he want to recruit a big number of followers, he has to be even [inaudible] boycott and sanctions. He has to do that. His only way. My relationship to israel, i am a liberal, proisrael. I love israel not for religious or not only for religious reasons, not only for national reasons, not only for reasons of memory. I love israel because i think that on very [inaudible] israel is a model for democracies not in the area. [inaudible] i believe, for example, that in the way of dealing with ethnicity, in the way of dealing with minorities, in the way of building a democracy without sometimes in a democratic tradition which was the case for so many jews who arrived harassed, despaired from arab countries or from russia and reinvented democracy. There is in israel a pattern of democracy. This is one of the main reasons why i love israel, and this is one of the things which at least in my country i try to say and to recall as often as i can. Rl am i heard enough . Certainly not. Certainly not. And there is, in france but all over the world, also in america, an attempt which sometimes achieve its goals of delegitimizing israel, of denying this democratic genius of israel which is, of course, a source of sorrow for me and for you and and of despair. This conference in paris, i cannot i dont avoid the question. Im very sad of it. It was a mistake, as of the u. N. Resolution of the 23rd of december. If i am faithful to what i say in my book about israel, i must say that this u. N. Resolution and this meeting in paris today i say publicly in france, to be sure was and are and is the wrong place, the wrong moment and the wrong wording. [applause] three more. You know, i want to invite you just to continue on a little bit. Maybe ill direct your thinking or your answer a little bit toward what is the future of judaism in europe, particularly france and maybe in western europe in general. We hear a lot of difficult things about whats happening with jews in europe. Now we know a lot of french jews are making [inaudible] what do you think . As you might have noticed, i am a fighter. A fighter very seldom or has very has great difficulty to leave, to quit the battlefield. And i think that most of the jews i know in fran