Lopes Cardozo - Jewish Law as Rebellion

Jewish Law as Rebellion

Jewish Law

As Rebellion

A Plea for

Religious Authenticity

and Halachic Courage

Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Urim Publications

Jerusalem New York

Jewish Law as Rebellion:
A Plea for Religious Authenticity and Halachic Courage

by Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Index: Shoshana Hurwitz

Copyright 2019, 2018 Nathan Lopes Cardozo

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First Edition

ePUB ISBN 978-965-524-338-3
Mobipocket ISBN 978-965-524-339-0
PDF ISBN 978-965-524-337-6
(Hardcover ISBN 978-965-524-276-8)

Cover inspired by Yael Shahar
Cover layout by the Virtual Paintbrush

ePub creation by Ariel Walden

Urim Publications
P.O. Box 5228 7
Jerusalem 9152 102
Israel

www.UrimPublications.com

The Library of Congress has catalogued the printed edition as follows:

Names: Lopes Cardozo, Nathan T., author.

Title: Jewish law as rebellion : a plea for religious authenticity and halachic courage / Nathan Lopes Cardozo.

Description: First edition. | Jerusalem ; New York : Urim Publications, [ 2018 ]

Identifiers: LCCN 2017056908 | ISBN 9789655242768 (hardback)

Subjects: LCSH : Jewish lawPhilosophy. | Judaismst century. | Judaism and secularism. | Judaism and social problems. | BISAC : RELIGION / Judaism / Rituals & Practice.

Classification: LCC BM520 .6.L 2018 | DDC .1/8dc LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/ 2017056908

This book is dedicated in honor
of our anonymous friends 60th birthdays.

May they merit many more years in good health
and may they continue to inspire those around them

with their wisdom and generosity.

*

Ariella an d Charles Zeloof

Dedicated In Loving Memory of

Joseph Erez Tenenbaum

R Abraham Lopes Cardozo

Irma Robles Lopes Cardozo

*

by their children

Judy Cardozo-Tenenbaum & Sid Tenenbaum

This latest book by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo is a cri de coeur from the enfant terrible of Modern Orthodoxy. He is a rebel fighting for a most worthy cause to reinvigorate Judaism and infuse it with real spiritual context. He inveighs against the over-codification of Halachah, a sort of pietistic OCD syndrome, which stifles the true spirit of Judaism. He calls for a return to the Talmud and its sources, with its openness, its bewildering variety of opinions, its multifaceted character, its liberality, and its halachic flexibility. This book is the powerful plea of a genuinely pious Jew deeply concerned for our Jewish future. The problems and challenges he presents are real and urgent, requiring creative rethinking on the part of our religious authorities. He is to be admired and congratulated for his courage and the clarity of his vision.

Sadly, he appears to be the lone voice of a tormented prophet battling against the overwhelming forces of the rabbinic establishment. The hope is that his impassioned plea be heard, and he be joined by a powerful chorus calling for a truly holy rebellion, a rebellion against the constrictions of a narrowly-focused and blinkered Orthodoxy, and one that will bring the vision of a new freedom functioning within the parameters of genuine Halachah.

Rabbi Daniel Sperber is Professor of Talmud and President of the Higher Institute of Torah at Bar-Ilan University.

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This is a collection of highly original essays by an Orthodox person passionately pleading with us to humanize contemporary Jewish law in Israel. While likely too radical at times for some of his readers (including me), no reader can doubt the brilliance, courage, and deep concern that Rabbi Lopes Cardozo displays in these pages for authentic halachic living. A true avodah lshem shamayim .

Yehuda Gellman is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

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Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo has written a challenging, even provocative book, inviting us to restore the iconoclasm with which Judaism was born as a religion of protest against the status quo. Agree or disagree, you will find yourself thinking hard and deep about the current state of Jewish law and life, and that makes it a work well worth reading a new chapter in one of the great Jewish traditions: the dignity of dissent.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is a British philosopher and scholar of Judaism and was formerly Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth.

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What this exceptional book offers is a rationale for halakhic practice as a discipline of resistance resistance to the corrupting effect of the ordinary, to the hollowing-out of human behaviour and human awareness that a fast-paced and feverish culture produces. It is full of insights that will challenge and inspire Jews and non-Jews alike: a reminder that Orthodoxy of whatever kind is empty if it does not arise from the deep, radical awareness of the divine imperative to be amazed and thankful in the face of every thing and every experience. Immensely enriching.

Rowan Williams , Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Divinity, is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian, and poet. He was formerly Archbishop of Canterbury.

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What a great pleasure it is to discover this book! What an interesting, creative, and off-beat mind its author has! Where else do you find an Orthodox rabbi so deeply committed to autonomy, chaos, and non-conformity? Lopes Cardozo fully understands the problematics of Halakha, loving and appreciating it from within, but is also able to transcend it and see it from without. This allows him to pose great challenges to the halakhic community. He longs to restore to halakhic decisors the courage and individuality that has been lost in recent centuries. This is terribly urgent in our age, when the ever-tightening reins of spiritual conformity threaten to choke the religious life out of Judaism, alienating so many honest seekers. This man sees it all and speaks of it with great courage. May God bless his efforts and stretch forth the walls of his virtual bet midrash !

Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak (Arthur) Green is Rector and Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Religion at Hebrew College Rabbinical School, Boston.

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Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo is that rare entity, a seeker who is unafraid to challenge accepted ideas and norms. His Jewish Law as Rebellion perfectly embodies his own engagement with tradition. It will inspire any who struggle with Judaisms most basic principles.

James Kugel is Professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University and Emeritus Professor of Classical and Modern Hebrew Literature at Harvard University.

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Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozos insistence that Halakha is meant to disturb and that the Jewish people must recover its sense of strangerhood restores an ancient prophetic voice to contemporary Jewish discourse. We must hope that this rich collection of his thought will expose his wisdom and challenges to an even wider audience.

Daniel Gordis received his PhD from the University of Southern California. He is the author of Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn , winner of the 2016 Jewish Book of the Year Award.

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Rabbi Nathan Cardozos Jewish Law as Rebellion is a bold plea for a reinvigorated Torah Judaism, one whose touchstone is critical reflection: on Halacha, on values, on policy, as well as on religious authority and religious authenticity. It is not, R. Cardozo argues, certainty that prompts these values, but rather asking the tough questions, even when altogether satisfying answers are not easily forthcoming. Our emphasis in education has been too much on what to think; not enough on how to think. Rabbi Cardozos approach promises a generation of passionate, creative halachic Jews. His book is a must read.