Nathan Lopes Cardozo
ARTICLES BY: Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Blessed Are Those Who Eat Chametz!
The Talmud (Brachot 17a) poses the following question: Why is it prohibited to eat or to possess chametz (leaven), such as bread, on Pesach? What is there in the nature...
Parshat Shemini: Are You Really Eating Kosher?
Kosher animals, as is well known, can be identified by two simanim (physical signs). They must chew their cud, and their hooves must be wholly cloven. (Vayikra...
On Purim, Don’t Forget What Shunning the ‘Other’ Can Mean For Us
The Jews’ most formidable enemy in Biblical times was the nation of Amalek. This nation was, and symbolically still is, the personification of evil, brutality,...
Rabbinical Courage and Frozen Texts
The Talmud in Makkot 22b discusses the identity of a Gavra Rabba, an exceptionally great person or Torah sage. It quotes a most remarkable observation...
Can Jewish Law Truly Define Who Is ‘Jewish’?
I was born by breech delivery, a very painful procedure that my mother endured with iron strength. We nearly did not make it. It was Friday night,...
All Jews Should Have Full Access to the Western Wall
I have been following the debate about the Kotel with utter astonishment. I was not planning to write about this, because by now the issue has...
We Must Show Our Children That Judaism Is a Religion of Rebellion
The establishment of the state of Israel, together with the challenges that modernity has presented to the Jewish people, have confronted Judaism with a reality...
Why Chess Is Like the Talmud, and Why Jews Love Both
There is probably no game as difficult and captivating as chess. Thousands of books and tens of thousands of essays have been published on how...
How We Can Be Rational, Yet Still Believe in God
In memory of Dafna Meir, who lost her life in a terrorist attack on January 17, 2015. Few prayers are more perplexing than the one called "Ein K'eloheinu." This famous song...
