Book Launch: Memoirs of a Hopeful Pessimist

Thursday evening, December 22, at 8 p.m. at Kehilat Yedidya, 12 Lifschitz Street in Bak’a.

MC for the evening: Linda Gradstein.

Panelists: Noomi Stahl and Dr. Yoni Moss, with response by Debbie.

Short musical program and light refreshments.

Book available for purchase and signing.

For more information, visit the event page here.

Kosher Movies featured on L’Chayim with Mark S. Golub

Film critic and author Rabbi Herbert Cohen, who co-hosts a “Siskel and Ebert” type of film review show from Israel called “Kosher Movies,” discusses his favorite films and their connections to values of the Jewish Tradition.

Watch interview here.
.

Remembering Elie Wiesel

Joseph Polak, author of After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring, honors the death of his best friend and greatest hevruta, Elie Wiesel.

Listen to him in conversation with Susannah Heschel here.

‘He Was A Man Capable Of Enormous Happiness’: Remembering Holocaust Survivor And Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel

Joseph Polak, author of After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring, remembers his friend Elie Wiesel.  Rabbi Polak joined Morning Edition to remember the legacy and impact of Wiesel.

Listen here.

If God is everywhere, why can’t I see Him?

Launching his new, two-volume series, Nefesh HaTzimtzum, Avinoam Fraenkel talks about philosophical and Kabbalistic topics that have been questioned for centuries. Nefesh HaTzimtzum is a comprehensive and accessible presentation of Nefesh HaChaim, the classic book by Rabbi Chaim Volozhin, which follows a methodological framework for serving God and provides guidance on how to philosophically interact with the world. Due to its Kabbalistic subject matter, Nefesh HaChaim has lain in almost total obscurity for nearly two centuries. Avinoam Fraenkel enlightens the complex work by providing a translation, in-depth explanations, an informative historical overview, and a full index.

During his book launch in Beit Shemesh, Fraenkel touched upon Kabbalistic topics such as if Kabbalah is authentic; how Kabbalah views reality; and if Kabbalah, science, and technology are connected. You can view the entire talk here.

Nefesh HaTzimtzum, Volume 1: Rabbi Chaim Volozhin’s Nefesh HaChaim with Translation and Commentary and Nefesh HaTzimtzum, Volume 2: Understanding Nefesh HaChaim through the Key Concept of Tzimtzum and Related Writings are available through Urim Publications.

 

 

World Premiere of the documentary film, “Lonely But Not Alone”

You are invited to the World Premiere of the documentary film, Lonely But Not Alone, by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Willy Lindwer.

The film documents the incredible life of Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo. Born into a mixed-marriage in the most liberal city in the world, he become an internationally-known rabbi and philosopher in the most religious city in the world. This is his story.

The screening will take place at the Begin Center in Jerusalem on Sunday, March 6th, at 7:30pm.  Featured guests include author and blogger Laura Ben-David, who will MC the evening, as well as Rabbi Cardozo’s brother Dr. Jacques Lopes Cardozo and his daughter Nechama Atlas Lopes Cardozo, who appear in the film.

Seats are limited. 

Buy your tickets today!  

Amsterdam Spinoza Symposium: It Is Time to Lift the Ban

by Nathan Lopes Cardozo

On Sunday, the 6^th of December, a symposium on Spinoza was held under the auspices of the University of Amsterdam and the Crescas Jewish Educational Center, initiated by Ms. Ronit Palache and Michel Waterman, and chaired by Professor Irene Zwiep. The symposium, at De Rode Hoed Cultural Center, featured international scholars who discussed the specific question of whether the ban on Baruch Spinoza should be lifted. Over 500 participants attended, including Dutch Government officials, academicians and leaders of the Jewish Community.

Spinoza, the celebrated seventeenth-century Amsterdam Jewish philosopher, is known as the father of the Enlightenment and has influenced generations of philosophers to this day. At the age of 23 he was excommunicated by the Portuguese-Spanish Jewish community of Amsterdam because of his heresies, which included his denying the existence of the Biblical God as well as the divinity of the Torah. The ban was by far the harshest ever to be imposed on a fellow Jew by a Jewish Community. Spinoza left Amsterdam and settled in Rijnsburg, then Voorburg, and later in The Hague where he wrote his two most famous works, the Ethics and the Tractatus Theologico Politicus.