The Cardozo Academy Think Tank opens its doors to voices that probe, question, and illuminate. These essays reflect rigorous thought, spirited debate, and deep engagement with Torah and lived experience. Readers will find essays that challenge preconceptions, explore timeless themes, and make meaning out of the complexity of faith and culture.
By Yael Valier
This Friday morning, I had a real-life competing values choice to make. I was making challah when I noticed a blood spot in one of the two eggs I was checking. Automatically, I made a move to throw the eggs away.
By DCA Staff
During my year in the Cardozo Think Tank, I found myself at odds, not so much with the answers people were discussing as with the questions themselves. The friction seemed centred on the fact that my religious life over the last few years,
By Yael Valier
Following a lecture by Rabbi Cardozo, I was thinking about the problem of converts coming before a beit din and feeling pressured to lie to the effect
By DCA Staff
I keep discovering that Judaism means very different things to different people. Recently I was exposed to an expression of Judaism that is old yet new, inspiring to some and disturbing to others.
Halacha makes life simple Halacha makes things very, very simple. I have a modest booklet explaining how to start your own fish aquarium. It turns out to be not so simple.
By DCA Staff
Hear what some Think Tank members had to say.
By Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden Once upon a time, religion in general and Judaism in particular represented the cutting edge of human progress. Abraham, Moses & Rabbi Akiva were trailblazers who challenged the laws of the jungle with the Laws of Moses. However, things have changed considerably.
By Michael Eliyahou Further to my last post: As to the identity of the Gedolei HaDor Whose Decrees Must Be Obeyed. There’s just kind of an assumption that they are, and who am I to question it?
By DCA Staff
By Michael Eliyahou A friend who, unlike me, grew up with a religious Jewish education in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, described the kind of idealism that a student of Judaism might hold: The tradition passed down to religious Jews in the schools we go to, I do think pretty much across the Orthodox board (which can […]
By Ariel Goldberg NOTE: This post was written as a response to Rabbi Cardozo’s argument that in order to rediscover the authentic melody in Halacha that has been drowned out over the past few centuries in the process of Halachic psak (legal ruling), the process needs to be consider giving more weight to minority opinions, […]
By DCA Staff
NOTE: This post is in response to a position argued by Rabbi Cardozo that the purpose of Halacha is to “complicate life in order to lead to the experience of God’s presence,” while noting that in recent centuries the development of Halacha has gone too far and overcomplicated life, defeating its purpose. In attempting […]