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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.

  • The Splitting of the Red Sea and the State of Israel

    In Israel & Zionism

    Jewish history consists of many epoch-making events. However, not all of these events have made an inroad into the consciousness of the Jewish people. For this to happen, the event must become, as the Jewish philosopher Emile Fackenheim calls it, a root-experience, a moment in which the hand of God becomes most apparent through His active participation in Jewish history. Still, this alone is not sufficient to transform an event into a root experience of enduring value. It is also necessary that the experience takes place in front of the multitude, as in the case of the splitting of the Red Sea, when even the maidservants saw what the prophet Yechezkel ben Buzi could not see. It is not the opening of the heaven but rather the transformation of the earth that is decisive in affecting all future Jewish generations.

  • Our Greatest Challenge “Kiddush Hashem”

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy

    The Gravest Sin of a Jew is to Forget Whom He Represents (1)

     

    Written in Pain and in a Hurry

     

    There is a high price to be paid for living as a Jew. He has to be holy so as to be normal. He is commanded to surpass civilization so as to be average. Our survival is neither desired nor easily accepted by many of those who surround us. God has positioned us in history in a most curious way. Either it is utterly inconvenient to be a Jew, or it is the most exalted merit man can ever attain. There are no short cuts and there is no middle road.  Our choice is our undoing or our making. We are the most challenged people on earth. We are either superfluous or indispensable. It is either tragic or unsurpassably joyous to be a Jew.  There is no neutrality.            

  • The Secret of “Ein Kelohenu”

    What do we mean when we ask "Who is like our God?"

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Liturgy & Ritual

    The song “Ein Keloh-enu” rejects the traditional so-called rational proofs for the existence of God, since they are based on a serious paradox.

  • Faith – Frontal Encounter

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy

    Faith is deeper than knowledge.  While scientific investigation is only absorbed in the brain, faith enters into all of the human personality.   All limbs of spirituality quiver and move, nothing is untouched and everything is transformed.  As such it is much more difficult to achieve faith than knowledge and it is much more radical in its effect

  • Kal Nidre – We are all Marranos

    In The Jewish Year

    Kal Nidrei is by far the most celebrated prayer in all Jewish Communities around the world and the most attended prayer throughout the Jewish year. Tens of thousands of Jews who would otherwise never attend a synagogue service will make sure they are "there" for Kal Nidrei. Not a few will leave shortly after the prayer is said and only re-appear a year later for the same occasion. The tune of this prayer has become the most famous Jewish melody ever, by far outdoing Israel's national anthem, Hatikva. Its tune is so magnificent that the famous non-Jewish author, Tolstoy, called it "a melody which echoes the story of the great martyrdom of a grief-stricken nation." Not even Beethoven's C Sharp Minor Quartet opus 131(six movement) is able to convey its grandeur, although it comes close.

  • The Mortal Danger of Retirement (1)

    How nice it is to do nothing and afterwards to take a rest"

    Dutch proverb

     

    As I watch some of my friends entering retirement, I realize how dangerous it is to "take it easy" and fall into the pit of idleness, thinking that one is at the peak of one's life while one may very well be at its lowest point. Retirement can be a real killer, and surviving its hazards is an art.

  • The Prisoner Exchange-Part 2

    In Israel & Zionism

    I don't know whether or not the Israeli government made the right decision when it agreed to receive the lifeless bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser in exchange for Samir Kuntar, the child murderer who returned to Lebanon well fed and in good health.  Such choices are, after all, beyond man's moral judgment. As I explained in my last essay (TTP 228, www.cardozoschool.org/), they are in the category of "Elu Ve-elu Divrei Elo-him Chayim" - "These and those are the words of the living God."  In moral dilemmas such as these, arguments on both sides are compelling, and both hold strong Jewish moral fiber. Even if we strongly object to this exchange, we still have to admit that the government had a sound, moral reason to allow this deal: a commitment to rescue, at all costs, any soldier who fell into enemy hands and, in case of death, to grant him a "kever yisrael", a Jewish burial.

  • The Prisoner Exchange – Part 1

    In Israel & Zionism

    One of the most remarkable maxims in the Talmud is the concept of "Elu Ve-elu Divrei Elo-him Chayim", "These and those are the words of the living God." (See for example Eruvin 13b) This is a halachic-philosophical concept which states that, even when there are opposing views among the Sages of Israel concerning Jewish law, all these views, being rooted in the divine word, are considered to be authentic and treated as if they come from God Himself. Just as light emanates from one source and separates into a spectrum of colors once it enters our space, so it is with the word of God. This is the great secret behind the vitality of Halacha. There are no final halachic conclusions.  Everything is open to debate.

  • The State of Confusion

    In Israel & Zionism

    As we watch the Israeli government's handling of the most sensitive issues, such as security, its dealings and negotiations with our enemies, and the freeing of arch terrorists, we realize that the State is run by people who are thoroughly confused about the most fundamental issues which confront the Jewish people in Israel and in the Diaspora.  A loss of purpose and direction has overtaken Israel's leadership. Bewilderment and a feeling of hopelessness has become the order of the day among some of Israel's most influential leaders. Weakness and lack of backbone have become their second nature. While they do their utmost to convince us otherwise, it takes little to realize this truth. 

  • What is Conversion?(1)

    In Converting to Judaism and Jewish Thought and Philosophy

    As the State of Israel and its rabbinical courts head towards a large-scale showdown concerning conversion, it is remarkable that not one of the participants, including the orthodox, has considered this major, crucial question: Is conversion at all possible? This may sound like a rhetorical question since the answer is in the affirmative.  Yet, this question 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. The reason for this is obvious: Logically speaking, conversion to Judaism should not be possible. Just as it is impossible for a Jew whose father is not a Cohen to become a Cohen, similarly, it should be out of the question for a gentile to become a Jew.  Either one is born into a family of Cohanim, or one is not. Presumably, then, either one is born a Jew, or one is not.  God chose the patriarchs and their descendants as His people, and it is only they who can claim to be Jews.    It would follow, then, that either one is part of this nation, or one is not.    

  • Rabbis, Hindus and the Question of Mutual Respect

    Although I am usually very skeptical when it comes to official conferences, I was very pleased to have been invited to participate in a meeting between the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the top leaders of the Hindu community from India that took place a few days ago. About 40 people, including the Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, other important rabbinical figures, professors, myself, and the leading chief "Swamis" of the Hindu community, met in Jerusalem to discuss the relationship between both communities.

  • How Holy is Life?

    In Jewish Thought and Philosophy

    There is no stronger reminder of the holiness of the Shabbath than the categorical imperative not to violate this day while building the Tabernacle and later the Temple. While the children of Israel are commanded to build this most sacred place on earth symbolizing the encounter between God and man, God makes it clear that the Shabbath is still not to be violated. There is a need to stop this holy work, even in the middle, to make space for this holy day: It is more holy than the Tabernacle and (later) the Temple: