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 Virtues of Insanity

    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.

  • Judaism as the Art of Rebellion

    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.

  • Who Is Really a Jew?

    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.

  • Debating Orthodox and Reform Beliefs

    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.

  • Bravo, Chief Rabbi Mirvis! Courage, Dayan Ehrentreu!

    Limmud and the Orthodox Fiasco

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

    Courage is the word that comes to mind when we think of Britain’s new Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis’ decision to come to Limmud, the largest Jewish conference in the world, which will take place in England at the end of the year. It is a sad commentary on the state of contemporary Orthodox leadership when a chief rabbi is called courageous because he accepts the invitation to teach Torah at such a remarkable Jewish event. What could be more obvious? But the truth is that courage has indeed become a rare commodity in large segments of Orthodoxy.

  • Competing values and the beauty of the irrational choice

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Yael Valier

    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.

  • Lonely But Not Alone

    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 […]

  • Lying to the Bet Din

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy by Yael Valier

    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

  • The Tent of Avraham

    Gleanings from the David Cardozo Academy

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

    This collection addresses matters of an academic, a personal, and a spiritual nature. The contributors include Jewish professors, rabbis, and thinkers, all of whom have taught at or are affiliated with the David Cardozo Academy in Jerusalem. Offering original insights into the Jewish tradition, many of the articles illustrate a more personal and emotional struggle with elements of Judaism, thus capturing the essence of the Academy.

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