By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM — Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo has a lot in common with the late Rabbi David Hartman. Cardozo is, as Hartman was, an Orthodox rabbi. Both immigrated to Israel in the belief that only here can Orthodoxy, indeed Judaism, renew itself and remain relevant. Both created institutions in Jerusalem, one the Shalom Hartman Institute the other the David Cardozo Academy. Despite their Orthodox training, the Israeli religious establishment has shunned them both.
But unlike Hartman, Cardozo isn’t a pluralist. Whereas the Hartman Institute welcomes, students, fellows and teachers from across the Jewish spectrum, religious and secular, the guest lecturers listed in the Cardozo Academy are all Orthodox, albeit often somewhat on the fringe.
I heard Rabbi Cardozo declare the other night that Conservative and Reform Judaism isn’t for him. But the way he described his own religious outlook, he is decidedly not for Orthodox Judaism. He told the audience that he’s no longer invited to speak even in the Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem where he worships.
Perhaps Hartman was more secure in his Judaism. Cardozo, though a graduate of the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva in Gateshead in England, is a Jew by choice, which often entails insecurity. His father was a Jew by birth, his mother was not and converted long after her son. He wouldn’t be the only Jew by choice who despite an independent mind and secular learning – he’s a champion of his fellow-Dutchman Spinoza – seems to be beholden to established rabbinic authority.
Unlike Hartman, Cardozo seems to accept the isolation, indeed the implied humiliation. The film that was made about him shares the title with his brief autobiography, “Lonely but not alone.” Had I had the opportunity I would have asked him about people, other than family and personal friends, who relieve his religious loneliness.
The late Rabbi Louis Jacobs, the most erudite Jewish scholar it was my privilege to know, was also shunned by the Orthodoxy from which he came: an Orthodox synagogue even refused to call him to the Torah on the eve of a grandson’s wedding. In the end he made common cause, albeit reluctantly, with the Conservative movement. That’s apparently not Rabbi Cardozo’s way.
I came away from the event realizing that you can’t be a religious radical without being open to all like-minded manifestations of Judaism in the way of Hartman and Jacobs (who taught Reform and Liberal rabbis in London) and that it’s not enough to argue that Jewish law has to change to become relevant without taking practical, sometimes even political, steps to try to bring it about. Rabbi Cardozo seems to prefer be an Orthodox maverick rather than a religious reformer.
But you can’t be a timid hero. For all the heroic and erudite efforts that Rabbi Cardozo is making to challenge stagnant Halacha, in order to be effective he’d have to come out against those who currently wield halachic power in the Jewish state, i.e., the Rabbinate. You may get mild applause for your views from other ostensibly Orthodox Jews as he did that evening, but in the end you can only see results if you join forces – yes, forces – with other religious, not just Orthodox, women and men.
*
Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, Canada. Now residing in Israel, he may be contacted via dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below must be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the U.S.)
As coordinators and members of the David Cardozo Academy Think Tank in Jerusalem, we know Rabbi Cardozo well, though we do not agree with all of his views (such disagreement is something he himself encourages). We are some of the people who “relieve Rabbi Cardozo’s religious loneliness” and many of us affiliate Orthodox.
While we appreciated Rabbi Marmur’s call against isolationism and for uniting to take action – in unity there is strength – in Rabbi Cardozo’s case, throwing in his lot with the progressive movements would be inauthentic to his beliefs and undermine his goals.
Rabbi Cardozo’s commitment to halacha is total and traditional in a way which that of other movements, even, perhaps, the Conservative one, is not. This remains a fundamental and unbridgeable difference, even when he pushes for changes in the halacha. Though he is absolutely willing to learn from all denominations (and religions) in order to create a more humane, moral, and authentically Jewish Halacha, joining forces with people who reject the Orthodox community’s mechanisms for halachic change does not accomplish his stated goals.
To Rabbi Marmur, these might seem to be like-minded people, but being willing to tamper with Halacha does not make them fellow travelers with Rabbi Cardozo. Such behavior for the most part stems from completely different roots and manifest in completely different lifestyles and philosophies.
Rabbi Marmur claims that Orthodoxy is not for Rabbi Cardozo. But since Rabbi Cardozo is trying to wrest Halacha away from those responsible for its stagnation, who are undoubtedly Orthodox Jews, his message must in large measure be aimed at these groups. His aim is to reclaim Orthodoxy. One cannot reclaim something from someone who does not have it. In his view, the only way to wrest a stagnated Orthodoxy away from the Orthodox in order to rejuvenate it and return it to its authentic state is by disturbing it from within, broadcasting to those willing to listen, and to whom the message is relevant.
It is not Rabbi Marmur’s congregants (we assume) who end up having to recite by rote prayers hundreds of years old, for fear of tinkering with established liturgy, or who struggle with the laws around drinking wine poured by a non-Jew! Clearly, Rabbi Cardozo’s message is not aimed at them.
Rabbi Cardozo’s mission is to provide a bold voice calling for Orthodox Judaism to become the most elevated, thrilling and noble path that it can be. He consistently points to aspects that are based on fear and diasporic thinking and will not let us rest in our comfortable, routine Orthodox lives, calling us to think more, do more, and be more.
He stands his ground in the face of vehement disagreement, and even threats
from some parts of the community, and thus inspires and provokes thought in other parts of the community. In light of Rabbi Cardozo’s willingness to stand his
ground, at personal cost, Rabbi Marmur’s musings about his “timidity” and
“insecurity” astonished us.
Rabbi Cardozo’s influence extends to those active politically (our Think Tank includes an activist who recently made a significant impact in one inadequate aspect of the Rabbinate’s functioning). Activists need thinkers to point the way. Rabbi Cardozo stands in the front line of those thinkers. True, he may be saying some rather startling things these days, things that cause us to sit up, gasp, nod, and shake our heads (and, again, he welcomes debate at all times). But his commitment to service of God, the halachic system as a whole, and love of all Jews means that he remains an important voice for Orthodox people of various stripes. His being a “Jew By Choice,” i.e. a convert, is irrelevant to us, except inasmuch as it grants him the passion of a person who chooses to be a Jew on a daily basis, and a certain refreshing ability to see things from the outside.
In sum: while some Orthodox might choose to shun him out of fear, many others, including ourselves, choose to embrace him out of love.
Yael Unterman and Yael Valier
DCA Think Tank
Jerusalem, Israel