יום רביעי, ט״ז תמוז תשפ״וWednesday, July 1, 2026
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Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo is the founder and dean of the David Cardozo Academy and the Bet Midrash of Avraham Avinu in Jerusalem. A sought-after lecturer on the international stage for both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, Rabbi Cardozo is the author of 13 books and numerous articles in both English and Hebrew.
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By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Whatever the reason for this phenomenon, Jews have to stop deluding themselves that they are just one member in a community of nations. They are not and never were.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The nature of the people of Israel is to live by a sacred mission. The existence of the people of Israel is dependent on its refusal to surrender to normalcy.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
I have dedicated my life to showing the relevance, beauty, and the profundity of Judaism. It is as clear to me as the sun that there is no place for indifference or lukewarm attitudes when it comes to Judaism.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The repeated commandment for the Cohanim to keep the fire burning seems to undermine the purpose of the Heavenly fire: the open manifestation of God’s miraculous providence.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Depression is one of the worst conditions a human being may suffer. There are several reasons for the occurrence of depression. One that is very common results from feeling that life is meaningless. Combined with the fact that nobody can escape death, some people experience life as very painful. They do not suffer from anything […]
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The more man did not see himself as created in the image of God, the more he devaluated himself and the more his use of language deteriorated as well. Thus, over many years, language has declined, one stage after another, suffering the loss of its grandeur
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The duty of halachic authorities is to solve difficult problems and make Jewish life as easy as possible by advocating lenient rulings. But never at the expense of making life boring. It is their duty to make life enjoyable and uplifting. But that can only come about by making people to live in amazement and wonder.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Despite a clear ruling by famous Chief Rabbi of Israel Ovadia Yosef z"l that these Ethiopians are surely Jewish (Yabia Omer 8, Even HaEzer 11)— the rabbinical council of the Eida HaHareidit decided that there is doubt about their Jewishness
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Moshe's punishment came, counter-intuitively, to prove coercion comes at a cost
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
What Korach doesn’t realize is that he’s been manipulated by his friends while convincing himself otherwise. He allowed himself to be used by his friends while thinking that he was using them.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The purpose of genuine religious life is to protest against this optical illusion and to teach us to reframe our spiritual spectacles. It is not that religion shows us something new. It shows us what we have seen all our lives but have never noticed.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Ran, this great talmudist and thinker launched a theory in which he argued that Judaism does not subscribe to the idea of a full-fledged theocracy, but in fact favors a halachic democracy
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
As anyone can testify, celebrating the Jewish festivals in Israel is an act of supreme delight. The festivals are invested with a very special spirit that cannot be experienced anywhere else. No other land can compete with the Land of Israel!
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
To learn the secret to a happy life, please read Rabbi Cardozo on parshat Bechukotai.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Nothing is more dangerous for a person than to remain spiritually stale, and for this reason we are required to count the 49 days of the Omer. To prepare ourselves for the upcoming celebration of Shavuot and the giving of the Torah, we are asked to climb a ladder of 49 spiritual steps, each day adding another dimension to our souls.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Like the prophets of old, our religious leaders must generate a spiritual revolution, triggering an ethical-religious uproar that shakes the very foundations of the state. Israelis are waiting for such a move, and there is little doubt that their response will be overwhelming. Only then will the Jewish people fully re-engage with its land.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
What Rabbi Yochanan taught us is that Jews will survive without Israel, as long as there is Torah, the portable homeland; but Jews will not survive solely because of the existence of Israel—however powerful it may be—if Israel does not incorporate a large percentage of Jewish traditional resources.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Are today’s rulings transformative, or do they promote stagnation? Shall we have prophetic halacha, or collapsed halacha? We have to re-create halacha so that it once again becomes the manifestation of holy deeds that generate marvel and amazement in every part of our lives.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
“Blot out the memory of Amalek” may quite well mean that we are obligated to uproot from within ourselves the ways in which our ancestors dealt with the ancestors of Amalek.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
We suggest all Jews and Israelis enter a small synagogue filled with dedicated and passionate worshippers, and then to release all external and artificial components from their souls; to penetrate the surroundings in which they find themselves, and then to let go. Th
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Yitro confronts us for the first time with a new phenomenon: to be a Jew by choice. By doing so, he presents all Jews with a major challenge: how to become a Jew by choice even when one has been born into the fold.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Though rooted back in our servitude in Egypt, to this day, similar attitudes of Jewish self-deception often create the foundations of Jewish self-rejection and self-hate, which become the root of animosity toward anyone who does not join this self-imposed denial of the Jewish cause.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Spinoza, who left all Jewishness correctly observed, circumcision is the secret to the miracle of Jewish survival. What those Jews who oppose circumcision should never forget is that the attempt to outlaw this rite may not just make Jewish life impossible, but would probably end all Jewish existence
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
What was Moshe's secret that enabled him to continue to fight for his goals, in spite of everything, and succeed where so many others would have failed? The answer is simple: he knew how to lose.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The astonishing fact that Jesus, one Jewish child considered the Messiah in the eyes of billions but utterly rejected as an apostate by his own people makes us wonder even more. What went wrong?
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Yaakov introduces a great foundation of Halacha: To give a religious moment an ongoing effect it must be translated into the tangible, the mundane. He picks up a rock.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
While it is common practice to emphasize chumrot and to encourage a strict observance of Shabbat and kashrut, we rarely see a parallel intensity when dealing with matters of human relationships.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Rabbi Cardozo's Mission Statement on education and the pursuit of Judaism
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Looking at and taking notice of a Sefer Torah is therefore of great value. Here is an item that has not changed an iota. Its physical nature attests to its stability. It is the only thing in the world that would not give in to innovation.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Repentance is, by far, the greatest miracle. In the dimension of time there is no such thing as going back. But in the world of repentance, time is created backward. It allows the re-creation of the past, to make the past better than it used to be
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
While there is no proof of life after death, everything seems to allude to it. Our existence in this world resembles a station at which we arrive when we are born and from which we leave when we die, returning to “home base.”
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
No Israeli parent has the right to give birth to a child in Israel and NOT teach them why they live in Israel, why they are Jewish, why we came back to this land after 2000 years and why we need to defend it.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The Wall is not a synagogue. It never was a synagogue and should never become one. It is a place where we Jews can meet, pray and share what we have in common instead of focusing on what divides us; where we can smile at each other even when we vehemently disagree.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Those rabbis attacking Rabbi Dweck may be great Talmudic scholars, but instead of using their exceptional knowledge to make Orthodox Judaism more and more vibrant, they drown in it and become stuck in the quicksand of intransigence, which they themselves have created.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The purpose of genuine religious life is to protest against delusion and to teach us to reframe our spiritual spectacles. It is not that religion shows us something new. It shows us what we have seen all our lives but have never noticed.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
From a human perspective, circumcision happens just once; but from the perspective of mission, the message conveyed by this act – the Jewish nation’s unwavering commitment to a higher mission – resounds forever
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Children need a strong environment, conducive to their development as Jews, while at the same time their Jewish education must provide them with so much pride that later in life they will be able to deal with the outside world as well and still be fully committed Jews.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
If the Jewish inhabitants of Israel do not behave properly or hide behind the claim they are observant or moral while in fact they disobey the ethical dictates of God, the Book of Amos makes it clear that the State of Israel will not endure.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
In the old days, it was a privilege to be mature. It was something people strived for. It meant maturity, well-considered opinions, and experience and knowledge of how to deal with the problems of life. This is no longer the case
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Judaism is about new ideas. It is dependent on fresh concepts deeply rooted in its tradition. We must be aware that if we do not apply new remedies we should expect new evils,
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
It is perhaps this fact that makes Pesach so relevant for our own times: The realization that even at the time of the greatest of miracles, many years passed without God revealing Himself openly.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Perhaps the institution of sacrifice is grounded in deep symbolism, the meaning and urgency of which escapes our modern mentality.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Rabbi Cardozo responds to a letter concerning his article on Rav Soloveitchik (zt"l)
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Jews have been an ever-dying people that never died, experiencing a continuous resurrection, like the dry bones Yechezkel saw in the valley. Purim, like the Jewish nation, will never cease.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Yeshivoth are producing students with a prodigious amount of Jewish knowledge, but are they serving the students and are the Yeshivoth producing real Torah scholars or just walking encyclopedias?
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Yitro's suggested solution to Moshe's workload is basically a simple one and does not require any extensive judicial knowledge. So why did Moshe, who possessed great wisdom, not think of this himself?
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The Talmud teaches only when making a sincere effort to reduce the pain of fellow human beings can one be called a great person! Those who do follow this approach are unsuited to be religious leaders
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Nobody doubts that unity of the Jewish people is of crucial importance. Still, we have to ask ourselves if in all cases unity is really THE highest value to strive for.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The Maccabees knew logically there was no chance of their revolt succeeding, but God created a notion of revolt in the minds of the Maccabees and correctly they followed this heavenly directive.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The foremost point of departure in any halachic decision must be that all people are created in the image of God and that ALL human life is holy.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The book of Bereishit keeps Halacha under control. It restricts and regulates it, and ensures that it will not wreak havoc.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
In biblical days, the prophets were astir while the world was sleeping. Today, the world is astir while the synagogues are sleeping. Blessed are the young people who are waking up.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
I believe that the Torah is often morally, deeply, and deliberately flawed, and that furthermore, God Himself intentionally made it flawed. It is the latter issue that I will discuss in this essay.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The possibility of chidushm - looking into the same text with new eyes - is crucial. The call for new interpretations, not just repeating what has been said, is fundamental to genuine Torah learning
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The Sukkah represents our life span on earth. For what is a Sukkah but a frail structure which we need to dwell in for 7 days and these 7 days represent man’s average life span of about seventy years
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
What is there in the sound of the shofar that words can't express? The blowing of the shofar proves we can surpass ourselves. By our own voice we cannot produce this penetrating terrifying resonance
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The Holy Day vs. the Tel Aviv Railway Construction - Can both sides win, or must both sides lose?
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Real religious leaders should not be “honored,” “valued,” or “well respected.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Faith means that we worship and praise God before we affirm His existence; we respond before we question
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Originally, Judaism was highly unorthodox. While it always believed in God and Torah, it never offered any specifics of what God meant or what Torah consisted of.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
My suggestion: Restore the Kotel to its former state, a place where all are welcome and used solely for individual prayer and meditation, just as our ancestors treated it throughout our long history.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
A modern allegory of politics, Israel and the world by Rabbi Cardozo based on a Dutch fairy tale
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Depending on their spiritual condition, human beings will either be satisfied with what they have, or will not. This is the determining factor whether or not it is a year of 'plenty.'
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
No marriage has lasted so long, been so deep in its commitment and so overwhelming in its love as the one between the Jews and their homeland-more than 3,500 years and going strong.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Pesach, the holiday that symbolizes the formation of the Jewish people, reminds us that sometimes we need to remove the evil inclination entirely so as not to fall victim to it.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Sport teaches us who we really are. It is not just entertainment or therapy for those who watch, but a glimpse of the infinite possibilities of life.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The laws of shechita and tzaar ba’alei chayim were meant for Jewish communities who would eat meat occasionally, not for the huge industry we have today
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Amalek is seared into Jewish consciousness as the ultimate enemy of Israel and the source of Haman
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Purim gives us a framework to understand our lives and remain optimistic in the midst of all the darkness
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The quality of our prayers may have to take precedence over quantity, some may no longer work for us
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
A Gavra Rabba, an extraordinarily great person, is one who reduces the pain of fellow human beings!
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
The Kotel should not have minyanim, bar mitzvah celebrations or be a commercial tourist attraction.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Judaism's about bold ideas & actions. Its goal isn't finding the truth but honestly searching for it
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
One is also obligated to destroy a mixture of meat & milk even if there's no intention to consume it
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Chess reminds one of Talmudic halachic debate with its "deliberate" tendency to make life harder
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
So dedicated to the letter of the law, some have unintentionally caused the degradation of Halacha.
June 26, 2026 
