Éliane AMADO LÉVY-VALENSI (1919-2006) psychoanalyst... Lot 362

Éliane AMADO LÉVY-VALENSI (1919-2006) psychoanalyst and philosopher. 39 L.A.S., Saint-Mandé and Israel 1965-1990, to Max Bilen; 81 pages in-4. A set of drafts of letters from Max Bilen to Éliane Amado Lévy-Valensi is enclosed. Important correspondence on philosophical issues and their respective works, often revolving around the Jewish question. [Max Bilen (1916-1995) was professor of French literature at Tel Aviv University.] These themes are set out in the very first letter, dated August 26, 1965, which is typical of this rich correspondence: "I think, however, that what you say about the need for the Diaspora to be 'recognized' by Israel should be explored in greater depth. This is certainly true, but it only takes on its full meaning when reintroduced into the dialogue, with all the nuances, reluctances, ways and pitfalls that characterize all human dialogue. The diasporic thinker needs to be recognized by Israel, and this need goes beyond him, for it is the unity and meaning of Jewish history that are at stake. And, sometimes, the diasporic thinker tends to deny this need, to want to link himself to the history of "anxiety" and "exile" alone, fallaciously detaching from it the mystique of return. Conversely, the Israeli thinker suffers the attempt to deny his links with the diasporic thinker, to focus on his tasks, the urgencies of his destiny and the fact that, in his eyes, they complete the cycle of pointless martyrdom and degrading exile. But on a historical and metaphysical scale, he too needs to be recognized by the diasporic thinker, and to recognize him, for it is in this double and essential recognition that the meaning and unity of a "history" that never ceases to happen are inscribed. The Mysticism of Return and the Mysticism of Exile can never be detached from one another. Rooting and uprooting sum up, in the symbolism of the Jewish People, the whole history of mankind, the whole cosmogonic adventure foreseen by the philosophers and, as you say in the other text (published in Ariel), by the poets"... Enclosed are a set of draft letters from Max Bilen to Éliane Amado Lévy-Valensi (approx. 69 pp. in-8), as well as a typescript listing Éliane Amado Lévy-Valensi's works published or in progress (10 pp. in-4).