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.
All religions and philosophies are, without a doubt, confronted with the question of how to relate to "existence." Should one oppose "existence" and ideally opt for "non-existence," or should one view "being" as good and "non-being" as the opposite?
September 1, 2010
22 Elul 5770
The Holy Souls
Yitzchak and Talya Ames
Kochava Even-Chaim
Avishai Shindler
May their memory be a blessing
How Does One Express a Tear on Paper?
You will win O Lord, if I make claim against You, yet I shall present charges….
Yirmiyahu the prophet
(Yirmiyahu, 12:1)
Were it not for the Lord…
they would have swallowed us alive
in their burning rage against us.
King David
(Tehilim 124:2-3)
Upon arising from my slumber this morning
I heard of the great slaughter
in Your land.
Four children of Abraham and Sara appeared before Your throne
within a second
without a chance to prepare themselves for the journey.
Innocent Jews gunned down by those who threw off Your image.
Seven children, forever deprived of their parents' love.
In emptiness will they stand at their chuppah
The beauty of Judaism is its unconventional combination of colors. Like Rembrandt's famous palette of colors, and unlike so many other traditions, Judaism perceives hidden layers that link its preternatural sensibility to an unknown reality. It transports all religious meaning, drawn from the creation and the Sinai revelation, to a plane where it then bursts out into a new creation.
The anti-Semitic world has a hard time with us Jews and we should feel pity for all those who work relentlessly to give us a bad name. They want to boycott us in academia, journalism, European governments, the market place, and even just in the streets of daily life. Indeed, we must admit that we are a real nuisance. It is not easy to live with us Jews; we are troublemakers and annoyingly irritating. There is no way of escaping this fact.
Recently, I experienced the great embarrassment of living in the presence of God, thinking that I knew what it entailed, only to realize that I had no clue. It was a rude awakening, dreadful as can be. I was confronted with a situation that I have always known exists but have never experienced before. In an instant I learned what no book could ever teach me in hundreds of years: that I should sense the ultimate in the ordinary; that I should live in awe when I encounter the trivial.
Rabbi Aha in the name of Rabbi Jochanan said: When at mountain Sinai the Israelites heard the word "I , (the first word of "I am the Lord your God" of the "Ten Words" ) their souls left them, as it says, "If we hear the Voice….any longer, we shall die,"(Devarim 5:22) and also it is written, "My soul failed me when He spoke" (Shir Hashirim 5:6). Then the Word turned to the Holy One, blessed be He, and said, " Lord of the Universe, Thou are life and Thy Torah is life, yet Thou has sent me to the dead!, for they are all dead!." Thereupon the Holy One blessed be He sweetened the Word for them…. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: The Torah which God gave to
In Israel & Zionism and The Jewish Year
I stand at the Kotel, the Wailing Wall.
I see the Wall with her frozen tears
And her passing clouds with many sighs.
I read secret books and hundreds of thousands of names.
Names from Egypt, Babylon, Rome, Poland, Spain, Hungary, America and South Africa.
Names from Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Dachau.
It is time to stop justifying God. Morally speaking (1), His ways are sometimes inexcusable. Allowing a Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed in the cruelest ways imaginable, causing unbearable pain to innocent children, is morally intolerable. Creating earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados and other "natural" disasters which kill people and other creatures is insufferable. Any attempt to justify these deeds of God is to profane His holy name.
In The Jewish Year and Passover
Judaism is the art of making a problem out of every solution. It correctly believes that what is taken for granted is boring; it does not get our attention and therefore has no significance. Only when we see something as a challenge and give it thought do we come alive. A sense of duty reflects awareness that the trivial is critical. There is no growth except in the fulfillment of one’s duty.
I will teach transgressors Your ways that sinners may return to You [Tehilim 51: 15]
Despite everything, I have great hopes for Rabbi Elon and believe he will deliver. I do not know what really happened, what is true and what is not. Surely something awful seems to have taken place. Nevertheless, though he may have seriously erred, caused people suffering, and damaged the honor of Judaism, and though he deserves to take responsibility and pay for his actions, I believe that it is in his power to teach us an important lesson.
To study Torah is a most difficult undertaking for modern man. It is not the Torah which is the problem but man. To read the text requires courage. Not the courage to open the Book and start reading but the courage to confront oneself. To learn Torah requires human authenticity, to stand in front of a mirror and ask oneself the devastating question of who one really is, without masks and artificialities. And that is one of the qualities modern man has lost. Man has convinced himself to be an intellectual, removed from subjectivity and to bow only to scientific investigation. As such he has disconnected himself from his self. Because man is a bundle of emotions, passions and subjectivities, he cannot escape however much he would like to his inner world. Still modern man formulates ideas; he may proclaim the rights of the spirit and even pronounce laws. But they enter only into his books, into his discussions, but not into his life. All these matters float in mid-air over his head, rather than walk with him into the inner chambers of his daily existence. They do not enter into his trivial moments but stand as monuments, impressive but far removed.
In memory of the victims in This essay was published in the 10.6.08 after the earthquake in It has become very difficult to go to synagogue lately. Praying to God has become a real challenge. Watching