For Rabbi Nina Cardin, there has always been something attractive about being a rabbi outside of the structure of a congregation.

“It’s a rabbinate without walls,” she said. “There’s little restraint. You can go where you want to go, you can be engaged in arenas that you might not be able to be engaged in if you were a congregational rabbi. There is a greater liberty to speak your mind without worrying about the politics of a congregation or institution.”

The Chizuk Amuno Congregation member said she is a “community rabbi,” which means that she serves those who consult her regardless of membership or anything else.

“Being a community rabbi, I was sort of free of those fetters, and I liked being free of those fetters,” she said.

That isn’t to say Cardin works outside of all bounds of rabbinical structure. In fact, she leads an important institution for area clergy members as president: the Baltimore Board of Rabbis.

A common refrain about the nature of Jews is that two will have three opinions. Cardin said that element is present with rabbis, but the job of the board is to be above that.

“If you’ve got three rabbis, you probably have eight opinions,” she joked. “The first task of the Baltimore Board of Rabbis is to be there for our membership. It’s really [about] the interpersonal, collegial connection. So above and beyond politics, opinions, the differences of belief, my job is to hold the spirit and the health of the members of the board and work to make sure they’re taken care of in a sense.”

The board is also responsible for running a an introduction to Judaism course, as well as helping rabbis work through a given issue.

“Because sometimes, being a rabbi is a very lonely position,” Cardin said.

Cardin said her expertise as a rabbi is focused on contextualizing biblical ideas and practices and expounding on what Judaism means today.

“Mine is more on the ritual, the midrash, the ‘how do we bring the traditions of Judaism into the modern era?’ How do we celebrate a child getting a driver’s license, how do we reimagine shmita in a contemporary world?” Cardin said. “How do we integrate women’s issues into mainstream Judaism?”

Cardin is passionate about environmentalism, as well. She said the Earth is both “precious and fragile,” and that it’s our job to care for the gift we’ve been given.

“It should be so humbling, and we should just be so grateful and make sure that we are not the ones to ruin it after 4 1/2 billion years. It shouldn’t be destroyed on our watch, and that’s what the tradition tells us, too,” she said.

For Cardin, the denomination in which she was raised and practices — Conservative Judaism — has the right mix of holding onto the past and moving into the future.

“I think Conservative Judaism correctly walks that middle line. I think we need anchoring in our tradition, otherwise, [you’re] always floating around. I think we need that anchoring to guide us and secure us, but that anchoring can’t be so rigid that it doesn’t allow movement and exploration and growth,” Cardin said.

She cited the well-known phrase “tradition and change” as the mantra for conservatism, saying it’s something that serves many Jews well.

“It seems to me that Conservative Judaism strikes the right balance between grounding me in a tradition, so I don’t have to make things from scratch all the time, but it gives me something that can hold me secure while I engage and navigate a changing world,” Cardin said.

While Cardin is a native Baltimorean, she lived in northern New Jersey for many years, returning in 1999. She said that she missed Charm City, and the local Jewish community holds a special place in her heart.

“You miss the embrace, the full embrace, of the family. And frankly, North Jersey, which is where we were, did not have the historic depth of a Jewish community like Baltimore does. I remember being [there] and coming home and having a friend say that their daughter who was having a bat mitzvah was the fifth generation in their shul,” she said. “I missed that, so coming home to Baltimore … was really quite wonderful.”

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com