bear witness to their infinity and to the weight of their worth.
That weight or kabod in Hebrew is the glory of infinite worth.
Whereas the five mentioned here gave glory to God by their saying
of “here I am” to Him Levinas has us bear witness to the infinite
worth of every other by welcoming them even by being their hostage.
So the last big theme of Otherwise Than Being is that of glory.
Levinas’ definition of glory is that which manifests the unmanifest
even in its unmanifestness so we must now understand this.
As Levinas begins to treat glory on page 140 in a section called
The Glory of the Infinite he writes about inspiration and witness.
I bear witness to the glory of the other when I respond “me voici”.
That puts it better than even “Here I am” because the me is in the
accusative case and in my lowliness I witness to the height of the other.
Levinas thinks that this is the deepest truth of Judaism that it
can bear witness to the glory of all other faces calling out to me.
Levinas starting on page 142 contrasts his view with Descartes and
Kant and he even speaks off modernity for by keeping philosophy
and religion within the limits of reason alone there is no glory.
On page 146 he writes about the glory of the infinite that orders me
to the other so when I respond I am making this glory manifest.
Others can begin to see this glory when I bear witness to it.
II,3.9 Even in its Unmanifestness
To make manifest means to show somebody something by
holding it in your hand for them so they can hold it in theirs.
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