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.
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Parashat Acharei Mot by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Religious thinkers should refrain from giving primary reasons for forbidden sexual relations. There is no objective reason why homosexuality and incest are forbidden.
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Parashat Terumah by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
It is in those who are still uncomfortable with God that new insights about Him are formed. And it will be in those uneasy environments that Judaism will be rediscovered and developed. The need for religious transcendence, and for the spiritual thread that keeps many young people on their toes, is enormous. Numerous secular people are joining a new category of spiritual theologians. Matters of weltanschauung are pivotal to many secular Jews now. The problem is that for them, and for the religious, the Torah is transmitted on a wavelength that is out of range of their spiritual transistors’ frequency. Yes, we turn on the radio, but we hear strange noises and unusual static. There is serious transmission failure. We are no longer sure where the pipelines are. God has relocated.
To the 5th Global Forum on Combating Anti-Semitism
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Parashat Ki Tavo by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
While we must help to combat anti-Semitism in every way possible, we should be aware that it is not a Jewish problem. Its solution will be possible only when the world makes peace with ethical Judaism. Only when Jews will be able to convince the world of the power of Jewish ethics, and will ensure that it is taught in every classroom, church and mosque is there a chance that anti-Semitism will slowly come to an end.
In Halacha, Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Parashat Beshalach by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Judaism is about new ideas. It is dependent on fresh concepts deeply rooted in its tradition. Innovative thinking is the need of the hour. It is time for halachic authorities, rabbis, and religious thinkers to take notice of the immense changes that have taken place in our day. Never has the world gone through so many adjustments in so short a time. Never have the Jewish people been confronted with so many challenges. It is not only the security of the State of Israel that is at stake, but even more so, its very spirit and spiritual future.
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
When we teach our children to eat kosher, we should tell them that this is an act of disobedience against consumerism that encourages human beings to eat anything as long as it tastes good. When we go to synagogue, it is a protest against man’s arrogance in thinking that he can do it all by himself. When couples observe the laws of family purity, it is a rebellion against the obsession with sex. By celebrating Shabbat, we challenge our contemporary world that believes our happiness depends on how much we produce.
A Tribute
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
How could it be possible that souls speak immortal words, think eternal thoughts, create art and music, and then just evaporate into nothingness and vanish?
In Converting to Judaism and Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
What makes one a Jew? Being born to a Jewish mother? Converting to Judaism? Not really. It is living by the spiritual order of Judaism that makes one a Jew; living through the Jews of the past and with the Jews of the present and future. We are Jews when we choose to be so; when we have discovered Jewishness on our own, through our search for the sacred; when we fight the never-ending spiritual struggle to find God, realize that the world needs a moral conscience, and carry that exalted burden so as to save the world and provide it with a mission.
Wanted: Rabbinical Courage
In Heschel and Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Orthodox leaders must remember is that we owe much of our knowledge not to those who agreed with us, but to those who differed and therefore challenged us to sharpen our minds.
This Friday morning, I had a real-life competing values choice to make. I was making challah when I noticed a blood spot in one of the two eggs I was checking. Automatically, I made a move to throw the eggs away.
A Spiritual Autobiography
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
This short volume tells the highly unusual story of Dutch-Israeli Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo. A child of an intermarriage between a Christian woman and Jewish man, Nathan Lopes Cardozo discovered Judaism in his teens and subsequently undergwent a ritual conversion and went on to study at Gateshead Yeshiva. Weaving together his history and his novel […]
In Heschel, Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Parashat Emor by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
We Jews are messengers, but we have forgotten the message. It is our obligation to rediscover it and advance it into eternity.
Following a lecture by Rabbi Cardozo, I was thinking about the problem of converts coming before a beit din and feeling pressured to lie to the effect