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.

  • האם אנחנו באמת אוכלים כשר? על הסוואה, צביעות, והסתתרות מאחורי הלכות כשרות

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    בעקובת הצמיחה המסיבית של תעשיית הבשר, בה מיליוני חיות נשחטות מדי יום, להתייחס לבעלי חיים בצורה הומנית, כפי שההלכה היהודית דורשת, הפך לדבר יותר ויותר קשה, אם לא לבלתי אפשרי. הלכות שחיטה וצער בעלי חיים כוונו לקהילות יהודיות שאכלו בשר לפרקים, לא לתעשייה הענקית שיש לנו היום, בה החוקים הללו אינם יכולים להישמר. האם לא ראוי ואף רצוי במצב עניינים שכזה, שיהודים דתיים יהפכו לצמחוניים?

  • Knowing How to Lose

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Moses and Parashat Shemot by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    What was Moshe’s secret that enabled him to continue to fight for his goals, in spite of everything, and succeed where so many others would have failed? The answer is simple: he knew how to lose. He knew that his failures were in fact the building blocks for his future successes.

  • Solving the Conversion Crisis

    The Birth of Non-Jewish Jewish Communities

    In Converting to Judaism and Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    Today, Israel has many thousands of immigrants who are of Jewish descent, yet not halachically Jewish. Should we convert them even though we know that they will not live a fully committed Jewish life? Or should we abandon them, basically ignoring and excluding them as we do now? I believe there is a third way, a way of reconciling these difficulties.

  • Learning to be finite

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by E.S.

    Spiritual experiences may represent our yearning for the “infinite”, but this yearning can only find expression in seeking to improve ourselves to the best of our ability and seeking to relate with love to the people and the world around us, while at the same time coming to an acceptance of our finiteness and separateness, overcoming the grief and outrage we feel at not being everything. Yearning for the infinite is really a way of learning how to be finite.

  • On Spiritual Experiences – A response to Yael Valier

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by The Cardozo Academy

    Religious experience is not necessarily any more valuable than purely spiritual experience. A vital part of the defining genius of the Jewish tradition is that it produced an intricate set of observances which, together, create an experiential space which is hospitable to spiritual experience and, to an extent, stimulates it.

  • The In-Authenticity of Codifying Jewish Law

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

    Halacha is the practical upshot of unfinalized beliefs, a practical way of life while remaining in theological suspense. In matters of the spirit and the quest to find God, it is not possible to come to final conclusions. The quest for God must remain open-ended to enable the human spirit to find its way through trial and discovery.

  • What makes a “spiritual experience”?

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Yael Valier

    What turns a spiritual experience into a religious one is the training and preparation that creates a religiously shaped receptacle for an experience or at least a religious vector for channeling the experience.

  • The Bet Midrash of Avraham Avinu – Lectures and the Academy

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

    To live a life of faith is to be prepared to live a committed religious life according to an inner belief of the heart and not because there is absolute empirical certainty. There is a constant need for questioning and rethinking one’s beliefs. In many ways, religion must be warfare—a fight against the indolence and callousness that stifles inquiry.

  • The Bet Midrash of Avraham Avinu: The Wonder of Judaism

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    The breaking of idols and slaughtering of sacred cows is, in itself, a Jewish task that began with Avraham Avinu. Consequently, we should not be afraid to do so, or at least to discuss the possible need for change. This could raise some eyebrows in certain religious circles, and we might even become controversial. So, we must keep in mind that great controversies are also great emancipators. They often clarify and enhance essential philosophies behind majestic traditions.

  • Freud’s Subconscious Discovery of God

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Parashat Bereshit by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    Jewish tradition teaches that man was created in God’s image. Whatever this may mean, it definitely includes the fact that God created man in such a way that man, in desperate need to discover himself, would constantly search for Him. Freud, we believe, gave a most original interpretation of this fact. With his discovery of the father figure he may have uncovered the mechanism through which God created an idea of Himself as the ultimate Father in the human mind.

  • The Modern Day Inquisition against Rabbi Joseph Dweck

    A Tragic Story of Rabbinical Small-mindedness

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

    When Orthodox rabbis are told that they are no longer able to speak their minds, offer new insights into Orthodox Judaism, or try to find solutions to serious problems by using innovative ideas, we are faced with a rabbinical world that is wearing blinders, is comprised of yes-people looking over their shoulders, and is generating a hazardous small-mindedness that has far-reaching effects.

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