Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo is the Founder and Dean of the David Cardozo Academy and the Bet Midrash of Avraham Avinu in Jerusalem. A sought-after lecturer on the international stage for both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, Rabbi Cardozo is the author of 13 books and numerous articles in both English and Hebrew. He heads a Think Tank focused on finding new Halachic and philosophical approaches to dealing with the crisis of religion and identity amongst Jews and the Jewish State of Israel. Hailing from the Netherlands, Rabbi Cardozo is known for his original and often fearlessly controversial insights into Judaism. His ideas are widely debated on an international level on social media, blogs, books and other forums.
Whether the angels play only Bach praising God, I am not quite sure; I am sure, however, that en famille they play Mozart. (1) When attending synagogue services around the world, one is often confronted with a lack of religious enthusiasm. In many synagogues, services are heavy and often depressing. It is not always the […]
The great Chassidic leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, complaining about the Jews’ detachment from Judaism, once said that when a bridegroom stands under the chupa (bridal canopy) he can say hundreds of times to his future bride “You are betrothed,” but these words are meaningless until he adds one more Hebrew word, Li (to […]
The public is invited to attend the 5772/2012 Jerusalem Lecture Series “Judaism, Heresy and Secular Philosophy” Opening Lecture: “Spinoza, the Kotzker Rebbe, and I“ By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo Wednesday, October 26, 2011, at 8:00 PM Yad Harav Nissim, 44 Jabotinsky Street, Jerusalem To view list of upcoming speakers please click here.
To read it in Hebrew, please click here.
In former times, no hours were more extraordinary in our forefathers’ lives than those just before the onset of the awesome day, Yom Kippur. These comprised moments of such intense religious upheaval in the human soul, that it was as if the world had become a different planet, one in which all normal human needs […]
Warmest wishes for a healthy and happy New Year from the David Cardozo Academy.
By Yael Unterman Member of the David Cardozo Academy Think Tank and Halachic Lab I open this essay with a hypothesis that, frankly, I find repulsive: The central lesson of Rosh Hashanah is that truth is overrated. As a person highly committed to truth, I loathe this statement. Yet, paradoxically, I state the above precisely […]
A Parable (1) Preparing for Rosh Hashanah “I will incline my ear to the parable” [Tehillim 49:5] Once upon a time, in a large, gloomy palace high on a mountain, where the night wind howled outside its massive walls, there lived a king – a real one. His beard was long like a silver waterfall, […]
The Talmud (Makkot 22b) discusses the identity of a Gavra Rabba, an exceptionally great man or Talmudic sage. It quotes a most remarkable observation made by the well-known sage, Rava, who states, “How foolish are some people who stand up in respect for a Sefer Torah but fail to stand up in respect for an […]
In our days, the word tolerance has become highly popular, as are pluralism and democracy. These terms are so often used that one would hope most people have a proper understanding of their meanings. This is, however, far from true. In fact, it seems that the more these words appear in our papers, books and […]
One of the most challenging aspects of religious life is how to relate to the concept of revelation.� The uncompromising claim by Judaism, that the Torah is not a book written by man but is the result of the most famous revelation of God�s will to man, requires a formidable amount of faith in the […]
Once upon a time, in a large, gloomy palace, high on a mountain, where the night wind howled outside its massive walls, there lived a king - a real one. His beard was long like a silver waterfall, and his voice boomed like thunder. More than that a king does not need. His name was Teuton, though some called him