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 Kotzker, Spinoza and I – Ten Questions for Rabbi Cardozo by Rav Ari Ze’ev Schwartz

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Spinoza and The Kotzker Rebbe by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    I've always wondered what would have happened if Spinoza had met the Kotzker. Both were obsessed with truth, but each approached it from a different point of view. In Spinoza's pantheism, there is a strong Kabbalistic element but, simultaneously, a denial of a personal (biblical) God. However much some Spinoza scholars want to claim that all of his philosophy was based on pure reason, it is very clear that there are elements in his philosophy that reveal aspects of mysticism. Both were searching for God and knew no compromise.

  • My Search for, and Momentary Loss of, God: Ten Questions for Rabbi Cardozo by Rav Ari Ze’ev Schwartz

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    What is holiness? It has something to do with the constant awareness that God is to be discovered in all that one does, speaks, thinks, and feels. But that’s nearly unattainable. How does one live up to this?

  • Why I Ask and Doubt but Have Strong Faith: Ten Questions for Rabbi Cardozo by Rav Ari Ze’ev Schwartz

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    Faith is like music. It is true because of its beauty, not because of its intellectual certainty. It stems from impossible paradoxes, as well as a great deal of imagination that surpasses rationality and scientific or historical facts.

  • Why I (Refuse to) Pray: Ten Questions for Rabbi Cardozo by Rav Ari Ze’ev Schwartz

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    For me, praying is the admission that we need His help and that we are not God! I have to make myself aware that I need to praise Him because I am not His equal; not because He needs me for anything. But sometimes, as after a tragedy, I want to turn my prayer into a protest against God.

  • Why I am Controversial: Ten Questions for Rabbi Cardozo – Question 1

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

    I was recently asked by Rav Ari Ze’ev Schwartz of the Society of Independent Spirituality: Can you say a little about the educational and spiritual goals of your weekly articles? What do you want your readers to experience when they read these articles? How do you yourself experience these goals and articles? Here is my response.

  • The Great Paradox

    The Non-Existent God and the Need to Serve Him

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    Is God really perfect as we always maintain? God Himself tells Moshe Eheyeh asher eheyeh—I will be what I will be. Not “I am what I am” as the Septuagint mistranslates. But how can that be? It means that He is not yet what He should be and that He never will be. Apparently He is incomplete, because He seems capable of changing and moving toward perfection, but He will never be able to actually reach perfection. God is trapped in a contradiction. So, is God a verb? Always “godding”? Always imprisoned in a becoming mode? What then is God? An unending trial to be God?

  • Torah beyond Halakhah – Interview with Rabbi Cardozo – Part Two

    In Halacha, Jewish Thought and Philosophy and The Ishbitzer by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    In last week’s Thoughts to Ponder (no 623), we published the first half of an interview with Rabbi Cardozo. At the end of his observations, Rabbi Cardozo discussed the codification and dogmatization of Jewish Law and religious beliefs as they took place in the diaspora and showed that these developments did not do justice to—and in fact opposed authentic Judaism. Here is the continuation of his arguments.

  • The Revival of the Dead & the Miracle of Return

    The full text of Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo’s Afterword to Returning

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

    Epub / eBook In this insightful essay, Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo speaks of the implications of resurgent memory in our day. Could this be the fulfillment of prophetic vision?  He notes that stories of non-lived memory are more common than we think. “Such stories hint at a great secret about the age we are living in […]

  • Returning

    A story of memory and redemption

    In Holocaust and Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Yael Shahar

    Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kasva Press LLCPublication date ‏ : ‎ September 4, 2018Language ‏ : ‎ EnglishPrint length ‏ : ‎ 504 pagesISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1948403009 How far will one man go to attain forgiveness? Alex died in Auschwitz, having betrayed his faith and his people. Now he’s been given a single miraculous […]

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