Beyond the Box with Dayan Daniel Kada (Danny)
- sammykaye15
- Dec 30, 2024
- 2 min read
I met Dayan Kada 9 years ago when he became the lead Rabbi of my local synagogue. Danny was a lead Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Community being the lead Rabbi of Wembley and Lauderdale Road Synagogues. Danny is now the Rabbi of Holland Park Synagogue and serves as a member of the Sephardi Beth Din.
Danny has was an important figure in my cultural/religious upbringing. However, it should be expressed that we are people with different philosophies and world views. But, that is irrelevant to why he was and is significant to me. The moment I met Danny (I was 14/15 years old), I was struck by someone who I could clearly see was thoughtful, intelligent, thorough and constantly and continuously focussed on growth and personal/self development.
Moreover, he was a Rabbi who relished difficult and intellectual conversations where he and the very foundations of Orthodox Judaism (his beliefs) were being challenged. This made me internally reflect and question myself on my convictions at the time (they were atheistic and not that in favour of religion at the time). I would identify now as more of an agnostic humanitarian pluralist.
What I loved is that Danny would immerse himself in each occasion with the community and immerse himself in studying the world and bringing people together to discuss it. As Danny moved onto a different synagogue we still kept in touch and discussed ideas (sometimes debated).
Danny and I discuss a variety of topics in this interview but the main emphasis of the video is Philosophical and Spiritual discussions on living a 'Good Life' with meaning, integrity and how to adjust and calibrate oneself to a modern, changing and difficult world.
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