Thoughts to Ponder
Thoughts to Ponder is a weekly invitation to think dangerously and question passionately. Drawing on the Torah portion, classical Jewish sources, philosophy, and the crises of contemporary life, Rabbi Cardozo challenges religious complacency and spiritual comfort. These essays are written for readers who seek a Judaism that disturbs, questions, and ultimately deepens the human encounter with God and responsibility.
-
-
Yom Ha’atzmaut – There Is No Security For Israel Unless It Is Secure In Its Own Destiny
Israel's inability to conform to any framework is a living avowal of our uniqueness. Israel’s very existence is the manifestation of divine intervention in history to which it must attest. In Israel, history and revelation are one. Only there do they coincide. While other nations exist as nations, the people of Israel exist as a reminder of God’s involvement in world history. Only through Israel is humanity touched by the divine.
-
Jumping Into Deep Waters
The Cornerstone of Judaism
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.
-
Rejection or Integration: The Secret of Pesach
The secret of Pessah
In The Jewish Year and Passover
No nation or religious movement can live in isolation, nor should it. It needs to develop inner strength so that it can open itself up to other cultures and ideologies without losing its own identity.
-
Biblical Studies: Relevance, Eternity and Unawareness
In Education
Understanding Chumash (the Five Books of Moses) is far more than knowing how to give expression to the deeper meaning of the biblical text. After all, it is impossible to treat the Chumash as any other classical work since, according to Jewish Tradition, the People of Israel are not the author of this text; rather, it is the author of the people.
-
To Be Secular Would Be Hell, Everything Would Be Forbidden
In Halacha
A few years ago I saw a cat hit by a car. It rolled over several times but escaped unhurt. Its face showed no sign of shock (1), but its body language indicated clear signs of panic and disorientation.
-
Unmasking Anti-Semitism (TTP-426)
As Europe and other countries around the world become aggressively more anti-Semitic, and antagonism towards the State of Israel escalates, there is a need for careful assessment of the nature of anti-Semitism.
-
To Be Religious is to Be a Halachic Poet
In Halacha
Halacha is the practical expression of discovering the infinite within the finite. To grasp the world of religiosity, or the real essence of halacha, it is not enough to know all of the Written and Oral Torah. One must also see how the birds fly and the flowers blossom; one must sit by the bed of the dying, watch the stars, and have unexpected meetings. Because all of these are a living commentary on the Text.
-
Judaism: The Art of Rebellion
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.
-
What is Death?
Do our souls cease to exist after they leave our bodies? Does the spirit turn to ashes once it is on its own? How is it possible that souls speak immortal words, think eternal thoughts, create art and music, and then just evaporate into nothingness and vanish? A soul doesn’t grow out of nothing. It’s rooted in another world. Does it then perish and just disappear when it leaves this world?
-
God, Where are You? Murder in Har Nof, Yerushalayim
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?
-
Who Is Really a Jew?
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.