The face of another communicates to me. It expresses itself, and this ex-
pression cannot be avoided. It commands me, "Thou shalt not murder."
It expresses, also, its pressing needs, and in doing so, obligates me. In
Totality and Infinity, Levinas directly quotes the Talmud but once:

"To leave men without food is a fault that no circumstance attenuates; the dis-
tinction between the voluntary and the involuntary does not apply here," says
Rabbi Yoḥanan. ( TI, p. 201, citing Sanhedrin201b)

Levinas uses this Talmudic statement to introduce and emphasize the
ethical imperative that lies behind language.

Our response to another's face is speech. Language, itself the very
heart of reason, begins as an ethical commitment. Before it communi-
cates any content, language responds to the expression of the face. As a
response to the face of another, language is an expression of that "here I
am" that we spoke of earlier, one of the biblical ideas Levinas is at-
tempting to convey. As such, language bears witness to our personal
presence. The beginning of intelligibility, of rational discourse, is our
spoken response to the command of another. Because the expression of
the other person commands me, Levinas speaks of that expression as
coming from above me, like a sovereign. Once more there is a hint of
biblical imagery.

Language does much more than foster communication between us.
In fact, communication occurs before language. Language witnesses our

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