IKAR Podcasts

A seemingly superfluous sidebar in our grand narrative in fact models what we most need to remember in a time of tyranny: There will emerge a vast moral vacuum. Step into it. Use the power you do have to muck up the machinery of injustice. Lean into faith. And remember that goodness, courage, and integrity are contagious. This is how we push back against the darkness.

Parashat Shemot 5786

This is a recording of Rabbi Sharon Brous's of For the Love of Learning. Every Tuesday morning, a new story from the Talmud. Taught by your rabbis in a monthly rotation, we’ll dig into the strange and compelling world of the Talmud, exploring the ways ancient dilemmas speak to modern questions. Join us in-person at the Event Space (coffee and nosh provided) or over Zoom (B.Y.O. nosh) for as many sessions as possible… your Tuesday will thank you.

This is a recording from 12.31.2025 of Rabbi David Kasher's Weekly Parashah class, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

Jacob’s farewell address in Parashat VaYechi features a vision of a snake and a cry for Divine salvation. As our world backslides into fear, anger, violence, and deceit, we nonetheless find hope in self-transformation. By caring for the needy and welcoming the stranger, we preserve the legacy of B’nei Yisrael, and become partners with God in redeeming a broken world. 

Hidden within the broader narrative of exodus and redemption is a sub story about how a minority retains its distinctive culture. And the unlikely messengers of this story are… sheep.

This is a recording from 12.23.2025 of Rabbi David Kasher's Weekly Parashah class, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

Lunch & Learn with American Federation for Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Rabbi Sharon Brous to discuss Weingarten's new book, Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy, which exposes the long-planned strategy to undermine education—and lifts up the powerful role educators play in protecting truth and democracy.

We apologize for technical difficulties that occured during the livestream which caused compromised the quality of the first 20 minutes of audio.

1. We must be exactly who we are, only more so. 2. There is great geographical, ideological, political and religious distance between us. We must remember that we are responsible for one another. And 3. We must dramatically shift our approach to fighting antisemitism.

This is a recording of the Weekly Parashah with Rabbi David Kasher, a class co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR from 12.18.2025 / Mikeitz 5786

This is a recording of Rabbi Sharon Brous's of For the Love of Learning. Every Tuesday morning, a new story from the Talmud. Taught by your rabbis in a monthly rotation, we’ll dig into the strange and compelling world of the Talmud, exploring the ways ancient dilemmas speak to modern questions. Join us in-person at the Event Space (coffee and nosh provided) or over Zoom (B.Y.O. nosh) for as many sessions as possible… your Tuesday will thank you.

The seeds of redemption were being planted—we were just too busy to notice.

A conversation between Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Rabbi Sharon Brous on faith, identity, leadership, and Buchdahl’s new book, Heart of a Stranger.

Dr. Kraemer focuses on the literary analysis of rabbinic literature, rabbinic ritual, the social and religious history of Jews in late antiquity, and Jewish diaspora ideologies. Since 2024, he has played a crucial role in forging policy and expanding the impact of the Library’s world-renowned collections and programs. His most recent book is Embracing Exile: The Case for Jewish Diaspora.

This is a recording of Rabbi Sharon Brous's third session of For the Love of Learning. Every Tuesday morning, a new story from the Talmud. Taught by your rabbis in a monthly rotation, we’ll dig into the strange and compelling world of the Talmud, exploring the ways ancient dilemmas speak to modern questions. Join us in-person at the Event Space (coffee and nosh provided) or over Zoom (B.Y.O. nosh) for as many sessions as possible… your Tuesday will thank you.

When it comes to speaking about the personal experiences we’ve had— or we yearn for— with God, we tend to retreat into self-consciousness and silence.  I’d like for that to change.  So, here’s my story.

This is a recording of our second session of For the Love of Learning. Every Tuesday morning, a new story from the Talmud. Taught by your rabbis in a monthly rotation, we’ll dig into the strange and compelling world of the Talmud, exploring the ways ancient dilemmas speak to modern questions. Join us in-person at the Event Space (coffee and nosh provided) or over Zoom (B.Y.O. nosh) for as many sessions as possible… your Tuesday will thank you.

Our ancestor, Isaac, repeated the pattern of his father’s failures—an expression of loyalty to the covenant. We, too, may feel trapped by the force of the past, as though we are powerless to the repetition of the worst chapters of our history. 

But we can—and must—choose agency over inevitability.

Read the source sheet here. This is a recording of our first session of For the Love of Learning. Every Tuesday morning, a new story from the Talmud. Taught by your rabbis in a monthly rotation, we’ll dig into the strange and compelling world of the Talmud, exploring the ways ancient dilemmas speak to modern questions. Join us in-person at the Event Space (coffee and nosh provided) or over Zoom (B.Y.O. nosh) for as many sessions as possible… your Tuesday will thank you.

This week’s parashah is the fourth in a row to remind us that Abraham and Sarah are old. Imagine them in Los Angeles, 2025 - how would they age? And how can that help us imagine a new approach to aging for ourselves?

This is a recording from 11.12.2025 of the Weekly Parashah with Rabbi David Kasher, a class co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

Vayera 5786

The Rabbis warn of a society defined by its cruelty toward the most vulnerable. We must not become Sodom.

This is a recording from 11.5.2025 of the Weekly Parashah with Rabbi David Kasher, a class co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

The audio recording of this conversation was compromised and you may need to adjust volume settings for certain portions of the recording. We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience.

Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha is a medical doctor with a specialty in internal medicine, currently completing a clinical fellowship in critical care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, combined with a research fellowship at the Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School. Her research focuses on healthcare policy and politics that create inequality in health services and outcomes for underserved communities.  She formerly served as the He...

The case for the medium tent.

Source sheet: https://ikar.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Everythings-Breaking.-Can-We-Be-Fixed_.pdf

This is a recording from 10.29.2025 of the Weekly Parashah with Rabbi David Kasher, a class co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

Hidden in the dry details of genealogy and geography is the actual beginning of Avraham’s story– a beginning that fundamentally changes how we understand the call he receives, the family he leaves, and the journey he undertakes.

From September 27, 2025.

At a time when so many horrible things are happening, some might wonder, "Why bother to be a decent person?" At such a time, we need to focus on the words of Hillel, "In a place where people are being inhumane, seek to be a mensch."

As a part of disability Shabbat, IKAR member Matan Koch explores the ideas of openness, welcoming and access in the context of embracing each person's unique reflection of the divine. He takes us on a journey from Talmudic thought to present-day actions, exhorting us to be the kind of community where all of the reflections of the divine are known, and seen.

Stories, perspectives, and wisdom from folks in our own community.

A conversation in recognition of October 7th with Rabbi Sharon Brous and Alana Zeitchik, an Israeli-American peace advocate.

A lighthearted and serious look at the shared strengths of the most majestic of trees and the ancient resilient Children of Israel.

Examining how our perceptions inform our beliefs and behaviors, through the Babylonian Talmud's account of the ancient Water-Drawing Festival.

As we move from the peak experiences of the High Holydays into Sukkot, how will we gather in our joy? What practices can we adopt for Sukkot, whether or not we are able to build a Sukkah? And what role does this joy have to play in our experience of Sukkot and beyond?

We cannot bypass the pain in pursuit of the promise. Only by confronting the trauma of our past, both individual and collective, can we build a future of expansive possibility.

I turned to King David and the Prophet Natan to learn how to fight fascism. 
I learned something much deeper and more sustaining for our time.

Living meaningfully with the time we've got.

Join Rabbi Brous and Lori Gottlieb in a sermon-dialogue on the intersection of Jewish and therapeutic wisdom on issues of deep concern for us today: how to stay in relationship with people whose ideas break your heart, confirmation bias and how minds are changed (can they be?), how to overcome psychic numbing and stay centered and empathic, even when we’re hurting, how to hold hope and grow resiliency, and more.

Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, wh...

We are facing a spiritual catastrophe. In the small space between prophecy and distinct possibility, we must forge a new path.

We're living in a world of constant distraction and alerts and noise, and we're exhausted. But we also don't know how to get out of this internally and externally constructed trap. What can these holidays help us learn about the necessity of stillness and silence in order to go back out into the world? How can they help us rediscover our connection with ourselves and with each other?

The Jewish community is being offered a false choice between countering antisemitism and protecting democracy and civil rights.

But there is no inclusive democracy without Jewish safety -- and no Jewish safety without inclusive democracy.

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and a nationally recognized leader on countering antisemitism and extremism and protecting democracy -- who previously led the successful lawsuit against the Charlottesville neo-Nazis -- will join Rabbi Sharon Brous for a conversation on how we can reject the false binaries of this moment and advance a more just...

As we move closer to the High Holydays, what do Ursula Le Guin, a provocative Midrash and the opening word of our Torah portion have to teach us about the demanding but essenntial work of teshuvah?

In this week's parsha we learn that the king had to write a Torah for himself. Or was it two - a Torah that accompanies him throughout his life and one that remains in a treasury locked away? From this we can learn a lot about our public and private selves and about the difference between the actual and the ideal. What lessons might accompany us as we enter this holiday season and throughout our lives?

Both the Jewish calendar and the Torah come to a close leaving our people in a state of active preparation. But do we ever feel truly ready?

An earnest message to my child as she makes her own way in a broken, angry, anguished world, and a quiet plea to us all to open our hearts with love. 

At first glance, Tu B’av, the Festival of Love, seems to be the Jewish equivalent of Valentine’s Day.  But, a deeper look at the strange origins of this holiday reveals the transformative possibilities of this day.  It all begins with an ax. 

Tisha B'Av is the day we devote to contemplating destruction and ruin.  How should we observe it, this year, when we are already carrying so much grief?  And how can our tradition, and the story of one London rabbinical student, spur us to action?

Right now we are in the period of the most concentrated grief in the Jewish calendar leading up to Tisha b'Av next week. This year, in Los Angeles, we are in an extended period of the same. From the fires through the ICE raids beginning last month, we have gotten no reprieve. What insight does our parsha lend us about how to live in this valley of grief and also let our grief be a catalyst for action?

Buried in a list of names is the mysterious fact that the sons of the mutinous leader Korah did not die. What follows is the bizarre journey of the sons of Korah to a ledge in Hell, where their song calls out to us, even today.

Sharing a personal, first-hand account of my time in Israel during the war with Iran.

Trauma, history, fear—all of these lead us down a path that is as futile as it is dangerous. At the end of one terrible war and in the midst of another, we can do better. We must grow in our ability to imagine one other.

The ten spies who enter Canaan create 40 years of delay in the Israelites’ journey to the Promised Land. What did they do wrong?  And how can we avoid making the same mistake they did as we witness the brutality all around us?

Amid ICE raids and ballistic missiles, here’s what I saw from the stage at a multifaith vigil in downtown Los Angeles, what I heard from my Iranian friend who yearns for home, and why I believe our most audacious dreams must be born in the darkest times

This Pride Shabbat, we need to reckon with the current landscape for our trans siblings. We need to understand that trans people are being used as a wedge to divide Americans, and as a test case for increasing authoritarianism. What does our parsha teach us about the dangers of callousness, and what brighter, more beautiful future can we imagine?

When trauma is acknowledged, not denied, not justified, not dismissed through comparison, only then can something new and hopeful be imagined.    

Read the sermon here.

After the antisemitic murder of two young beloveds on a DC street, there are four things I know.

Parashat Behar-Behukotai 5785

A strange, mysterious half-story told in the Torah hints at a failure of leadership and a failure of law, and calls us to be brave and bold, especially when our dreams seem furthest from reality.

A blessing for strength in spirit and body for a new Pope in a time when spiritual and moral leadership matters more profoundly than ever.

In a world roiled by seemingly unprecedented division and doubt, the longing for spiritual meaning and for a life rooted in faith appears to be growing ever stronger. In this session, speakers share their perspectives and experiences of faith, and the role faith and faith-driven communities can and should play in calming stormy seas.

This is an archive of a live event from 5/7/2025 that took place as part of Milken Institute's Global Conference.

To thine own self be true: Sharon Brous has let this advice illuminate her path to becoming a rabbi. She was raised with a strong social, but not religious, Jewish identity. The more she studied and admired the humanity in the sages’ writings, the more Brous felt her voice was silenced simply because she is a woman. Today, as an ordained rabbi, Brous’s decades of hands-on pastoral care in Los Angeles has cleared “a path to become myself.” Her book, The Amen Effect—and how to get it—is embraced by seekers of every stripe and urges us to seek hum...

…Because there is a space between stimulus and response. What we do in that space is our choice. So please: tell me you’re scared. I’m scared too.
Tell me times are tough. Tell me we’re facing a narrowing landscape of possibilities.
But please do not tell me there’s nothing we can do. There’s always a choice to make.

Parashat Tazria-Metzora 5785—May 3, 2025

On today’s episode of Best Book Ever, Rabbi David Kasher is joined by Madison Margolin to talk about psychedelic experiences in the Torah. Madison is the author of Exile & Ecstasy: Growing Up with Ram Dass and Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground. She’s also Co-founder of the Jewish Psychedelic Summit and DoubleBlind, a print magazine and digital media startup covering psychedelics and where they intersect with mental health, environmental justice, social equity, and more, Madison also teaches on Judaism and psychedelics, such as with Tzfat’s LiveKabbalah or Psychedelics Today, and offers consulting and guidance for th...

This week was the 250th anniversary of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. In his story we see so many echoes of our current moment. What lessons can we take with us right now? And how does our parsha's story of Aaron, the high priest, help us step forward to carry out the tasks we are called to do?

Find the text study sheet here.

There are a number of

parallels between the creation of the world and the splitting of Yam Suf,

casting this dramatic moment of the Exodus as a kind of “recreation

story.”  Which makes the appearance of a provocative midrash about an

Israelite woman picking fruit from a tree and feeding it to another that much

more fascinating… and I’d like to suggest, subversive.  What exactly

happened in the Garden of Eden, and what message does it hold for the

...

From 4.12.2025

Prepare to embrace the bold vision of Passover

(that we are all heading toward freedom, that pharaohs crumble and fall)

requires focus. Let's affirm the twin pillars of the Hebrew Bible

(chesed/lovingkindness and tzedek/justice) to gird ourselves for the battle

ahead!

Ours is not the first generation in which telling this story, reiterating these foundational ideas, is risky. Dangerous, even. And perhaps that is the greatest reason of all to tell this story truthfully. 

April 5, 2025 – Pesah 5785

Guy Branum joins Rabbi David Kasher to discuss Ashera and the presence of a goddess in the Torah.

Let us not turn to the garden—or the theater, or the studio—to escape this world, but to enrich the soul, to strengthen our hearts to plant for a better future. Making art, tending gardens, telling stories, especially from within the narrowest constraints—all of these can be sacred acts of defiance.

This is an archive of IKAR's Adult learning class: The Amen Effect with Rabbi Sharon Brous

Lunch & Learn from Shabbat 3.21.2025 - Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum in conversation with Rabbi Sharon Brous.

An archive of Rabbi Sharon Brous's The Amen Effect class from 3.11.2025

An archive of Rabbi Sharon Brous's The Amen Effect Class from 2.25.2025

The rabbis radically reinvent Elijah. From violent zealot to gentle

peace builder. The path to the messianic era depends on this

transformation.

Using Jews as a wedge to break apart the world order is not new. 

We must be honest about what’s happening here.

On March 3rd, we welcomed Maoz Inon and Aziz Abu Sarah, Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the forefront of a burgeoning new peace movement in conversation with Rabbi Sharon Brous.

Rabbi Morris Panitz is joined by Professor Arnold Eisen to discuss his new book. "Seeking the Hiding God: A Personal Theological Essay invites readers to join the author in asking, perhaps for the first time, what they actually believe about ultimate matters of faith and doubt – and rewards fellow- searchers for ultimate meaning with reassurance that the search itself can be a source of personal fulfillment, vibrant community, and great joy."

When your most precious resource faces grave risk, you create a sanctuary to protect and nurture it. You hold close the seeds, so that when the conditions are right, you can replant and rebuild.

Hear from Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Khaled Abu Awwad, leaders of Roots/Shorashim/Judur, an Israeli-Palestinian grassroots initiative for understanding, nonviolence, and transformation. They represent a unique network of local Palestinians and Israelis who have come to see each other as partners in the work to make changes to end the conflict. They share with Rabbi Sharon Brous and Melissa Balaban their personal stories of struggle and transformation as well as their vision of mutual national recognition and reconciliation.

In a time of loneliness and isolation, social rupture and alienation, what will it take to mend our broken hearts and rebuild our society? Join Rabbi Brous in a series of text studies that explore the Jewish sources that form the core ideas behind her new book, The Amen Effect.

We are lost and disoriented. How can the core values of this week's Torah portion supply us with a compass to navigate the landscape of moral injury?

Yitro reminds us, in the twisted reality of our time: do not quiet your intuition.

Defy the new norms. Live from your deepest moral convictions,

not your most callous political calculations. And do not eat the tainted grain—

no matter how hungry you are. Keep searching for an alternative food source.

There is always another food source.

Four postures our tradition warns against, in the face of grave threat:

Do not snail.

Do not capitulate.

Do not meet become the mirror image of your enemy.

Do not render yourselves preemptively powerlessness.

Instead: do what you know.

We are all struggling in this moment of deep darkness - either riding the constant emotional rollercoaster or already feeling numb. The thing is that both of these will destroy us. Instead, we need to stay connected to our humanity and each other to get us through. That is the only way we will find ourselves back in the light. 

How do American Jews navigate complex conversations about Israel and Palestine across generations? And what does it take to truly listen to each other? Rabbi Sharon Brous sits down with IKAR’s CEO Melissa Balaban and her daughter Emma Wergeles to reflect on their recent trip to Israel and the West Bank with Encounter. From different generational perspectives, they share what challenged them, what moved them, and why direct engagement with both Palestinian and Israeli perspectives is essential for for any hope of a lasting and just peace.

This is the moment to remember who we are, to ground ourselves in the story that stands in determined opposition to the story of tyranny. To tell of a God who cares about the vulnerable. To become again a people whose faith compels us to protect the frightened. 

After 15 months of catastrophic loss, unspeakable heartache, and the utter undoing of not one but two peoples—in body and spirit, we stand—at this moment—at an inflection point. May this be the beginning of the end of the suffering. May it be the beginning of the path toward a just peace.

Read the sermon here.

Even as the fires burn, let us hold on another, give voice to what we have lost, and turn toward what remains.

How did Joseph, a man hardened by one life experience after the next, soften his heart to forgive his brothers? A remarkable midrash imagines a conversation between Joseph and Benjamin that changes everything. Ten names and all the worlds of meaning, of missing, of memory they contain.

What is Joseph's legacy? And what can we learn from the character with the most costume changes in all of the Torah?

Jacob tried to flee from his estranged brother. Did he fear more the battle, or the potential reconciliation? What happens when victimhood is built into our self-definition? What do we lose when we stay at the table, and what might we gain?

What will it take for us to understand that there is no future until we see one another?

Vayishlah 5785

There is a teaching in Pirkei Avot that says that the mouth of the well was made during the first Shabbat of creation. We have long accepted it to be Miriam's well, but what if it's the well from this week's parsha - the one Jacob encounters after his dream, and where he meets Rachel for the first time? If it's that well, then maybe we, like Jacob, have to find the well, roll off the stone, and discover what exists underneath. 

Who is Isaac? The man perpetually trapped by his father’s story, still bound to the altar, forever defined by the core trauma of his life. What will it take to break free? For the once bound to become unbound?

Source sheet: https://ikar.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Isaac_-Bound-and-Unbound-1.pdf

After a life of heartache, two estranged brothers affirmed each other’s humanity,

and rediscovered their own. We, too, can make that choice. Let us push back on the encroaching darkness as a force for good—a light force—that counters the cruelty, racism, and violence poisoning our culture with compassion, tender presence, and forgiveness. This is what solidarity looks like.

Loving your neighbor, who is like you, whose identity you share, is not enough. You must stretch the boundaries of love to wrap into its embrace the stranger, the people in our society who are furthest away from power. To counter the frenzy of rhetoric and the aspirations of policy that demonize these human beings, we need to love them fiercely. We need to love them fully. 

Now we must learn the lesson our ancestor Avram learned:

one day our dreams will be realized. Just not today. And not tomorrow.

And maybe not for many years. But just as hope doesn’t die, dreams don’t die.

The dream we share for America didn’t die because our dream—

the dream of a just and merciful multiracial democracy in which all people live in dignity—

that dream is the right dream. It is the only future…

it’s just now clear that it will take much long...

There’s an eerie resonance between the Noah narrative and this week. What does Noah's Flood teach us about navigating chaos and coming once more to land?

After the death of a beloved child in our community to suicide, we reaffirm our commitment to combatting shame with tenderhearted love, to meeting one another in the dark, to never giving up on each other. May Benjamin Ellis’s memory be a blessing.