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 privacy of a nation and its inner struggles are challenged today as never before. What was once obscured from the eye of the world and consequently dealt with as a local affair is now shown on the world stage and judged accordingly. While this is true for all the nations of the world, in the case of the Jewish people and the State of Israel, it has far greater consequences. This is due to the fact that
In one of its most fascinating narratives the Talmud (Shabbath 88a) draws attention to the problem of religious coercion at the time when God planned to give the Torah to the Israelites. The passage reports how God threatened the Jews while standing at Sinai and delivered an ultimatum. Holding an inverted mountain Sinai over their heads, He pronounced: "If you accept the Torah, fine, if not, there will be your grave" Tosafoth (ad loc) in their great commentary on the Talmud sensed a fundamental difficulty with this narrative. Was it not true that the Jews had already accepted the Torah previously when they promised that they would observe the Torah even before knowing what it actually entailed? This is reflected in the famous words: "We shall do and we shall hear"( Shemoth 24:7). This was a clear indication that they were prepared to make an ultimate leap of faith and were fully committed to live by the commandments whatever was demanded from them. So why was there a need to coerce them?
As the inhabitants of the State of Israel find themselves once more undergoing one of their most critical moments, one wonders why, like no other nation, the Jews throughout the thousands of years of their history were never able to develop into a stable secure nation. The constant onslaught on its very existence, its lack of numbers, its deprivation of its homeland for nearly 2000 years and its difficulty to live with itself are unprecedented in world history. Even today with the re-establishment of their commonwealth in the form of the State of Israel, its mighty power and its unprecedented accomplishments, the Jews remain a nation in constant flux, never sure where the next day will take them, confronted with crisis after crisis and incapable of predicting its future in any conventional sense of the word.
In Halacha
If halachah is explained as a system of codes and regulations that govern life, there must be a concurrent system that enables men to formulate a weltanschauung, a teaching that gives man the ability to function on a philosophical, rather than on a concrete, plane. Just as philosophy tries to find metaphysical meaning, so does Judaism give meaning to the rulings of halachah. Moreover, even though the halachic system is flexible by its very nature, there must be some manner of dealing with the totality of life's phenomena and of determining a personal course of action that transcends the inherent limitations of every legal system.
"In studying the Jewish people we are face to face with a miracle and I venture to say: he who will be attentive cannot be incredulous.
Everything is miracle in this incomparable people.
Everything is miracle, its history, its origin, its fall, its dispersion, its stubbornness.
The contempt with which nations treat them who owe everything to them, who know the glamour of their past and the still greater brilliance of their future.
Add to this the unprecedented fact that this people alone, among all the other nations, forms one family and that this family though homeless and miserable kept itself isolated from the rest of mankind….
This fact alone would be an undeniable miracle, even if a prophet (Bileam) 34 centuries ago, at the frontier of Moab had not said: For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." Bamidbar 23.9 (1)
We cannot help but think of the above when watching Nobel Prize laureate Professor Robert Aumann of
Avraham passed away and died at a good age, elderly and full of days and he was gathered to his people. (Bereshith 25:8) The day that Avraham our father departed from the world, the great men of the nations stood in line and said: Woe to a world that has lost its leader, and woe to a ship that has lost its captain.(Baba Batra 91a)
In Halacha and Liturgy & Ritual
In our contemporary world it is difficult to continue being surprised. Our educational system (with exceptions) has been teaching us for several decades that everything must make sense and nothing can be left to intellectual random. Scientific knowledge with its emphasis on order and consistency, together with the study of human behavior and its insistence on universal psychological patterns, have confiscated our minds and convinced us that basically there is no place for astonishment
When contemplating the terrible destruction of
The question at this crucial moment in Jewish history is not if the nations of the world understand the miraculous existence of the State of Israel, but if Jews themselves are prepared to see this reality. Miracles have only continued to be part of Israel's history as long as Jews in and outside the land have done everything to merit such Divine intervention by continuing to recognize the miracles.
Or What To Do (1)
As
In an extraordinary statement in the Talmud, we get a glimpse into the minds of the sages of
Israel's dilemma in the wake of the withdrawal from Gaza
In Contemporary Issues, Israel & Zionism and Parashat Ha'azinu
In Parashat Ha’azinu, the Torah warns of the severe consequences that the people of Israel will suffer if they do not live up to their religious and moral mission. However, it's possible that these verses also prove that what is now happening to the Jewish people and to the State of Israel is not the result of random forces or political turmoil. They prove as clearly as can be that God is in charge and that His providence is at work through its very apparent absence.