If you were Abraham, would you have interceded for Sodom? Do you think that he was delighted at the existence of an entire city filled with evil as Sodom was? This man who the midrash describes as cursing the builders of the Tower of Babel for caring more for the loss of bricks than of human laborers? The answer is no, undoubtedly their behaviour nauseated him; yet still he tried to salvage it through the presence of ten righteous inhabitants.
In Contemporary Issues and Theodicy
How do we live with a God Who sometimes violates all that our own limited thoughts and feelings can grasp and express? It would be easier if we could deny God's very existence, the grandeur of all creation is too powerful to allow us to deny that He is there. But how are we to answer His silence when tragedy strikes?
Rather than waiting until a potential convert is ready to take on all of Jewish law, and only then converting them, we should first convert them, and then slowly introduce them to Jewish religious values and Halacha. This should be done by way of gentle persuasion and love, with no coercion whatsoever. We must give them the option of making their own choices, introducing them to a ladder of observance that they can climb at their own pace and within their own abilities.
Just as a human being who’s never had an encounter with classical music won’t know what he’s missing until he is introduced to Mozart, Beethoven or Bach, so it is with Judaism. But it all depends on who is playing the music.
As the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and the new rabbinical initiative for an independent conversion court (which I fully support) are headed toward a major showdown, it is remarkable that neither side has considered a most crucial question: Is conversion even possible? This may sound like a rhetorical question, since the answer is in the affirmative. Yet it goes to the very core of the problem. And as long as we do not deal with it, all deliberations concerning this matter are more or less meaningless.
Lord of the Universe, I beg You To Redeem Israel, But If You Do Not
In Contemporary Issues and Theodicy
I apologize in advance, but it has again become difficult to believe that You are actually living among us. Only three weeks ago, some of your most faithful devotees were standing, in the middle of their prayers, when they were suddenly attacked and brutally murdered in a synagogue in Har Nof, Yerushalayim. You didn’t stop the butchers but allowed them to savagely snuff out the lives of these husbands and fathers while You stood by without lifting a finger. They were speaking to You, praising Your greatness, and while conversing with You, they were struck down with guns, knives and hatchets. Don’t You think this is too much for us to bear?
When one carefully studies Jewish history from the early biblical days to our own times, one can only conclude that, in spite of the many pogroms, the Inquisition and the Holocaust, Jews were constantly accompanied by highly unusual events, large and small. The fact that Jews survived these atrocities, outlived all their enemies throughout the millennia, and made it back to the Land of Israel is unprecedented and a vexing conundrum for historians and sociologists. It is indeed miraculous.
In Contemporary Issues, Israel & Zionism and Parashat Bereshit
Impartial observers of the Middle East will realize that these are extraordinary times. Tens of thousands of Jews from many different countries are returning to their national and historic homeland after thousands of years.
In Biographies and Contemporary Issues
This year, the Think Tank is reading excerpts of the manuscript of Rabbi Cardozo’s forthcoming spiritual autobiography Lonely But Not Alone. Though the book is still very much in process, these summaries of the TT meetings will give readers a preview into what the book will contain.
In Biographies, Contemporary Issues and Education
The first discussion of this meeting opened around Rabbi Cardozo’s use of the metaphor of the mikveh. Rabbi Cardozo converted at age sixteen, but came to realize that to “convert” only once is nearly meaningless. Immersing in a mikveh symbolizes an inner transformation, resembling emerging afresh from the womb; and he deeply desires to emerge transformed from each and every visit to the mikveh, as he did upon his conversion many years ago.
First Sneak Preview of Rabbi Cardozo’s Upcoming Book
In Biographies, Contemporary Issues and Halacha
For the second half of 5775, the DCA Think Tank, consisting of fourteen men and women, of various ages and backgrounds but all committed to inquiring deeply into traditional Judaism, will be reading excerpts of the manuscript of Rabbi Cardozo’s forthcoming autobiography Lonely But Not Alone.