For the Love of Israel and the Jewish People ─ Essays and Studies on Israel, Jews and Judaism

The Land of Israel and the Jewish people are bound together in mysterious ways that go beyond convention. Here is a nation that has "too much history and too little geography," as Sir Isaiah Berlin said. Yet even in their exile, the Jews never truly left the land of their birth. Rather, they lifted it from its native soil and transformed it into a portable homeland, taking it with them to all corners of the earth. Only in 1948 after nearly two thousand years did the Jewish people return to its original home. How is it that contrary to all the laws of history, the Jewish people outlived so many powerful empires? How was this tiny nation able to make an unprecedented contribution to the wellbeing of all of humankind? Why did the Jewish people become a source of endless irritation to those who opposed its ethical teachings? Finally, how can the State of Israel rediscover its Jewish identity as the source of its greatest blessing and hope? Nathan Lopes Cardozo addresses these and other questions throughout this remarkable collection of essays.

Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo is a world-renowned thinker, lecturer and ambassador for Judaism and the Jewish people. He is known for his original insights into how Judaism can rejuvenate itself, showing new paths to its authentic expression. Rabbi Lopes Cardozoa€s writings are read by laymen, members of the clergy and academicians throughout the Jewish and non-Jewish world. He is a sought-after lecturer on Judaism and Israel at numerous institutions of higher academic learning, including Jewish study programs at leading universities, religious academies and rabbinical colleges. He is also the founder and Dean of the David Cardozo Academy, the Aron and Betsy Spijer Institute (also called the Beth Midrash of Avraham Avinu), which is dedicated to recapturing the ideological foundations of Judaism. The Institute is a think tank where rabbis, educators and professors under Rabbi Cardozoa€s guidance try to lay the foundations of a new approach to Judaism based on the classical sources. It is also dedicated to educating a new generation of rabbis, teachers and Jewish thinkers based on this philosophy. The author of many books on Judaism, Rabbi Lopes Cardozo writes and distributes via e-mail a weekly column, a€?Thoughts to Ponder,a€? which also appears on his website, www.cardozoschool.org. Educated in Amsterdam, he received his rabbinical degree from Gateshead Talmudical College, studied at Yeshivat Mir in Jerusalem, and holds a doctorate in philosophy. Rabbi Cardozo is a distinguished member of the Portuguese and Spanish Jewish community and lives with his wife, children and grandchildren in Jerusalem.