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Moshe Rabbenu (Moses, our Teacher)
There are figures in history who shape events—and then there are those who reshape the very possibility of history. Moses stands at the threshold between heaven and earth, a reluctant leader who becomes the greatest prophet of Israel. He is not only the one who leads the Israelites out of Egypt, but the one who teaches them how to become a people: bound not by power or land, but by covenant, memory, and responsibility.
Yet Moses is also a paradox. He speaks with God “face to face,” and yet struggles with speech. He ascends Sinai to receive the Torah, yet breaks the tablets in a moment of moral fury. He leads his people for forty years, yet never enters the Promised Land. In him, we encounter the tension between vision and reality, divine ideal and human limitation—a tension that lies at the heart of religious life itself.
In Moses and Parashat Va'era by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Who is the Eternal, that I should listen to His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Eternal and moreover I will not let Israel go. Shemot 5:2 When reading the story of the Ten plaques, one gets the impression that there is something absurd about the story. Why should Pharaoh listen to […]
In Defense of Heresy
In Converting to Judaism, Education, Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Moses and Parashat Shemot by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Judaism was born out of opposition, rebellion and protest. It overthrew and outlived mighty empires and gave the world a radically new understanding of itself. Judaism has nothing to fear. It has prevailed over all those who criticized it but has also learned much about itself by listening to opposing voices. Through these voices, it has been able to sharpen its own claims and if necessary change its mind when the inadequacy of these claims has become clear. Only in this way will it continue to play a central role in the future of mankind.
A Brief Insight while on the Road in Europe
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Moses and Parashat Ki Tisa by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
While scientific data is absorbed only in the brain, faith permeates all parts of the human personality. Nothing is untouched, all spiritual limbs quiver, and everything is transformed.
Would you convert?
In Franz Rosenzweig, Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Moses and Parashat Yitro by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Yitro confronts us for the first time with a new phenomenon: to be a Jew by choice. He presents all Jews with a major challenge: how to become a Jew by choice even when one has been born into the fold.
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.
In Moses and Parashat Yitro by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
What makes a legal case truly “major”? Is it the amount of money at stake — or the depth of moral and legal complexity it demands? In Parashat Yitro we see a subtle but radical change that Moshe makes to Yitro’s judicial reforms, revealing a vision of justice in which complexity, not power or wealth, determines what truly matters.
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Moses and Parashat Bo by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Two main expressions used for prophecy are "Zeh Hadavar," "This is the word," and "Koh Amar Hashem," "Thus says God." Why these two different expresssions?