What can Enlightenment philosophes -- especially Rousseau, arguably the most difficult of them all -- have to tell us about modern life that we don’t already know? A team of scholars from different academic areas—Barbara Abrams, PhD., Suffolk University; Mira Morgenstern, PhD, The City College of New York; and Karen Sullivan, PhD, Queens College/CUNY share unique vantage points in understanding Rousseau’s texts. This constellation of approaches -- grounded in an appreciation of the shared background of feminist critique -- provides the density that allows Rousseau’s nuanced writings to be read in their full complexity. The three focus on a relatively unfamiliar work of Rousseau’s, Le Lévite d’Ephraïm, a prose-poem in which Rousseau elaborates on a little-known Hebrew biblical text to interrogate many of the accepted, conventional views on issues ranging from the role of sacred texts; to Rousseau’s self-construction through the representation of guilt and remorse; to the role of hospitality in structuring both individual self-representation and social cohesion; to the place of violence in establishing national and communal self-identity. In each of these spheres, Rousseau reveals a particularly modern perspective in trying to honor both personal and social needs, and in privileging both the individual viewpoint and the political structure.