Jewish Thought and Philosophy

To think Jewishly is to stand at the edge of certainty and still choose to believe, question, and seek. Jewish thought lives in the tension between faith and doubt, law and freedom, eternity and change.

  • The Religious Value of Doubt

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    Faith means striving for faith. It is never an arrival. It can only burst forth at singular moments. It does not arise out of logical deduction, but out of uncertainty, which is its natural breeding ground. To have faith is to live with unresolved doubts, prepared to rise above ourselves and our wisdom. Looking into the Jewish tradition with its many debates, one clearly understands that those who deny themselves the comfort of certainty are much more authentic than those who are sure.

  • The Dangerous “Day After” Yom Kippur

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Yom Kippur by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    The day after Yom Kippur, the synagogue service really should be a completely different experience from what people are used to. Yom Kippur should still be in the bones of all synagogue participants. Its spirit should still be felt with every prayer. It should be completely impossible for synagogue services to return to their old ways, in which prayers are  said as if “nothing happened.”

  • Is Torah from Heaven

    A Letter to a Friend

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    Why do we believe that revelation may be possible? If revaluation is by definition not amenable to scientific investigation, what other faculty is available to us to contemplate the prospect of revelation? Believe it or not, this depends on our openness and capacity to wonder, to be perplexed and stand in amazement, which happens when we have no other way of dealing with something extraordinary.

  • The Purpose of Judaism is to Disturb

    Halacha and the Microscopic Search for God

    In Halacha, Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Parashat Re'eh by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    Judaism is a protest against taking life for granted. There are no insignificant phenomena or deeds in this world, and it is through Halacha's demands and interference in our daily life that we are made aware of God as our steadfast Companion.

  • A Command to Cancel the Commandments

    Death and Mourning in Halakhah

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    Judaism’s recognition of God is not the triumphant outcome of philosophical deduction. It results from the performance of mitzvoth. Through the observance of the commandments we perceive the Commander.

  • Shabbat: To Postpone is to Profane

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Parashat Pinchas and Shabbat by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    To set one’s schedule around fixed times—for prayers, for meals, for learning, etc.—does not only inject order into one’s life, but also meaning; and as such one gains an opportunity to sanctify those moments. The chaos of a week without order, of days without set times, is yet another manifestation of the secularization of society and the profanation of the sacred.

  • chess board

    The Divine Insanity of Halachic Chess

    In Halacha and Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    Halacha is the greatest chess game on earth. It is the Jewish game par excellence. For people who want to live a life of great meaning and depth, nothing is more demanding and torturous while simultaneously uplifting and mind-broadening. They love the rules because they are the way to freedom. Certainly chess is just a game, while Halacha, if properly understood and lived, deals with real life, deep religiosity, moral dilemmas, emotions, and intuitions far more significant in a person’s life than a chess game.

  • “Limmud” – An Open Letter to the Chief Rabbi of South Africa

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    I love to go to Limmud, to listen and to teach. Limmud is a place where I am challenged; where I hear new things (including some utter nonsense); where I can fall in love with my fellow Jews, laugh and cry with them, and share my commitment to and struggles with Judaism.

  • On Being Called a Rabbi & Third-Epoch Halacha – Ten Questions for Rabbi Cardozo by Rav Ari Ze’ev Schwartz

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Rav Kook by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    In the next 50 years, we will see radical changes in the condition and nature of the Jewish people, as well as in Orthodox Judaism and Halacha. While during the last 2,000 years Halacha was “exile-orientated” and “defensive,” we are slowly growing out of this. The sources that until now were the basis for Halacha will have to be replaced by new Orthodox / Israeli “prophetic” Halacha. The first signs of this are already taking place.

  • The High Priest, the Pope and I – Ten Questions for Rabbi Cardozo by Rav Ari Ze’ev Schwartz

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Maimonides and Rav Kook by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    However blasphemous this may sound, the Kohein Gadol was to be the original pope. Basically, the papacy is a Jewish function, tasked not with the mission of spreading the gospel, but rather promulgating monotheism, morality and the Torah, as far as it is applicable to the non-Jewish world.

  • My Struggle with Persuasion and the Truth Concerning other Religions – Question 10 (part 1)

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    It is because of my awareness that any religious belief can be justified that I have become so critical of mainstream Orthodox Judaism and skeptical about the way I promulgate my own Judaism, in the way I see it. Do I believe in it only because it’s something I have grown into and feel at home and comfortable with, or is there something more that makes my Judaism’s claim to truth stand out from all the others?

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