Explore every episode of the podcast IKAR Podcasts

⁠Source sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y2T1DiQxUoOGxy9u526GfyNrkRc_Z3Nx/view?usp=sharing This is a recording of the Weekly Parashah - Rabbi David Kasher's Torah study class co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR. Please note that the first few minutes of this week's class were not recorded due to a technical issue. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Hear from Sima Awad and Maayan Inon as they share their journeys towards reconciliation. Sima is a bereaved Palestinian sister whose brother was killed by an Israeli soldier when she was just 3 years old. Maayan is a bereaved Israeli daughter whose parents were both killed on October 7 by Hamas. Witness the transformative power of empathy in the face of devastating violence in Palestine and Israel. Their message that it's possible to hold grief, humanity, and hope at the same time feels especially important right now.

The Cornell 57 has reawakened critical conversations around violence, complicity, and the bystander effect. It also reveals the failure of the dominant stories we tell around gender, subjugation, dehumanization. This is an urgent reminder that another world is possible.

Source sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JAg6k6KfzAw-1PN1l6Vk7cWxiL13leRM/view?usp=sharing This is a recording of the Weekly Parashah - Rabbi David Kasher's Torah study class co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR. Please note that the first few minutes of this week's class were not recorded due to a technical issue. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Rabbi Hannah Jensen's teaching on Sukkot before the Torah reading on Shabbat 9.26.2026

The Talmud's story of a sweltering sukkah illuminates our urgent need for authentically Jewish answers and action as we face the mounting climate crisis. 

Yotam Polizer is the Global CEO of IsraAID, Israel’s leading humanitarian NGO. Yotam oversees IsraAID’s global operations, strategy and partnerships across 15 countries. He became IsraAID’s co-CEO in 2017 and Global CEO in 2019. Polizer is the 2023 Charles Bronfman award laureate. He has 15 years’ experience in education, humanitarian aid, and international development.

One of the central prayers of the High Holy Day liturgy reminds us of the uncertainty we face in the year ahead. But the prayer also offers us ways to maintain equilibrium in the midst of uncertainty. This in turn allows us to be the authors of our own Book of Life.

Rabbi Sharon Brous and Colin Campbell in conversation: Choosing Love: How a Bereaved Father Found Solace By Encountering the Humanity of the Person Who Killed His Children. Colin Campbell is a writer and director for theater and film. He is the author of Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Seraglio, a short film he wrote and directed with his lovely and talented wife, Gail Lerner. He has taught Theater and/or Filmmaking at Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, Cal Poly Pomona University, and to incarcerated youth through The Unusual Suspects. His one person show titled, Grief: A One Man ShitShow, premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival where it won a Best of Broadwater Award. He lives in Los Angeles and sometimes Joshua Tree.

What does it mean to remain connected to something we love when it disappoints us? How do we hold love, criticism, belonging, and moral involvement in the same hands?

From estrangement to engagement: How small, steadfast acts of love will be the bridge to the healing we need.

Palliative care specialist BJ Miller helps patients and families face illness and death realistically, comfortably, and on their own terms. Miller is cultivating a model for palliative care organizations around the world, and emphasizing healthcare’s quixotic relationship to the inevitability of death. He is a hospice and palliative medicine physician and sees patients and families via telehealth at Mettle Health, a company he co-founded with the aim to provide personalized, holistic consultations for any patient or caregiver who needs help navigating the many practical, emotional and communication issues that come with serious or chronic illness, end of life and disability. Miller’s passion for palliative care stems from personal experience -- a shock sustained while a Princeton undergraduate cost him three limbs and nearly killed him. But his experiences form the foundation of a hard-won empathy for patients who are running out of time. Let’s Begin at the End: Learning to Live and Love Well Not in Spite of Death, But Because of It. A conversation between Rabbi Sharon Brous and Dr. BJ Miller on Rosh Hashanah II.

"We've tried everything, and we nonetheless fear that it just wasn't enough. Now we are here standing before you with no more plays in the playbook. There's nothing more we can do, and we just hope that you can be satisfied with what we were able to fix and forgive us for the rest. Avinu Malkeinu, show us mercy, answer us, not because we're beyond saving, but because we're trying." Intro provided by rabbinic intern Jacob Schatz.

Extremism becomes palatable only in the absence of robust moral alternatives. That’s where we come in.

Don't let your life pass you by. It may be that your life is not what you imagined. Grieve what you need to grieve about where you are. And then invest in the life you have and find the beauty in it. 

The High Holyday liturgy is full of images of emptiness and abasement, as if to tell us, “You got nothing.” How does this week’s parashah, always read just before the High Holydays, put itself into conversation with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?

Ki Tavo offers a theology of reward and punishment, of cause and effect, but lived experience teaches us that the world does not work so neatly. What becomes possible when we read the parashah forwards and backwards, not only as protest against injustice, but also as a guide to rebuilding a shattered world?

Part genealogical detective story, part gripping history, part contemporary reporting on war-torn territories, The Wanderers - A Story of Exile, Survival, and Unexpected Love in the Shadow of World War II, chronicles Daniela’s journey to unearth this past and reveal its echoes in still-contested lands from Ukraine to Israel.

Grab a glass of grape juice or wine and a comfy chair, and join your rabbis for a launch of the season. We’ll cover many of the High Holy Day basics (What can I expect if I’m coming for the first time? Wait, another Amidah? And which service do I wear white to?), along with some of the most perplexing questions of the season (Remind me why we’re doing all this? Why does September feel like a marathon? Is teshuvah really possible?). We’ll do our best to connect, elucidate, and elaborate in 90 minutes or less.

What do we do when Torah contains laws that violate our deepest moral commitments? A troubling passage from Parashat Ki Teitzei invites us to wrestle with difficult texts-and to see interpretation not as an escape from tradition, but as our obligation within it.

Ami Fields-Meyer discusses his New York Times best seller "On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear" with Rabbi Sharon Brous. Co-Sponsored by J Street and New Israel Fund.

I hunger for a leadership with the moral seriousness, the moral imagination to recognize that the greatest achievement is not brute force and military victory, but the embrace and affirmation of human life. Of peace.

What happens when we have the courage to really see what is before us—the blessing, the curse, and everything in between? Re’eh invites us to look up, pay attention, and enter Elul and this season with our eyes and hearts wide open.

From the broken brotherhoods of Genesis to the final conversation between Moses and Aaron, the Torah asks what it truly means to become our brother's keeper. Through a relationship shaped by speech, silence, conflict, and compassion, a vision emerges of how even fractured relationships can find redemption when truth remains bound to love.

ASL Interpretation for this sermon is available on YouTube. In this week's parsha we read that Moses pleads with God, and the form of that word (va'etchanan) only shows up in one other place in the Torah - with Joseph. What do these two moments come to teach us about yearning for things we may never get? Why is it important that we articulate those desires anyway?

The book of Deuteronomy has begun, and our people are as numerous as the stars in the sky. But Moses cries out, “Eikhah!” The famous heart-broken “how” that foreshadows the tragedies of Tisha B’Av. What mournful message does Moses see in the stars? And what, instead, can we learn from the dust?

Join Donniel Hartman and Rabbi Sharon Brous at the Shalom Hartman Institute for a profoundly honest and challenging conversation on the moral responsibility of Jewish leadership today. Together, they explore the complexities of holding onto faith and hope in a world facing overlapping crises—from climate change and the rise of AI to political extremism and the disturbing normalization of violence and antisemitism. Drawing on the teachings of the prophet Micah, Brous and Hartman share what keeps them up at night and where they find reasons to be optimistic. They delve into the crucial difference between winning the war in the Middle East vs. maintaining a moral standing on the global stage, the necessity of truthtelling within the Jewish community, and the controversial debate over the utility of the label "Zionist" in contemporary political discourse. This discussion is an essential watch for anyone grappling with identity, community, and the ongoing struggle to build a just and loving world in times of deep uncertainty. Topics Covered: The "polycrisis" of our time: Climate change, AI, and violent extremism. The tension between internal truthtelling and external public relations. What it means to drop a "sea anchor" when facing waves of fear and anti-Semitism. Why the words we use matter, and the growing debate over the term "Zionism".

What happens when the man who once found refuge forgets the power of mercy? Drawing together Moses' flight to Midian, the cities of refuge, and one of the Torah's most difficult passages, we discover an enduring challenge to break the cycle of vengeance before it breaks us.

Join Rabbi Sharon Brous in conversation with Raphael Warnock, Baptist pastor and senator from Georgia, to discuss his new book The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America. Join us on June 27 during services, virtually and in-person.Senator Reverend Raphael G. Warnock is a transformational voice in Congress and the pastor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, and for the semiquincentennial of America, he exhorts us to reach for the highest and noblest aspects of our national character. Senator Warnock argues that we suffer not from a paucity of resources but from a poverty of moral imagination.

Senator Reverend Raphael G. Warnock is a transformational voice in Congress and the pastor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, and for the semiquincentennial of America, he exhorts us to reach for the highest and noblest aspects of our national character. Senator Warnock argues that we suffer not from a paucity of resources but from a poverty of moral imagination.

A conversation with Dr. Sara Glass, author of Kissing Girls on Shabbat, and Lani Santo, CEO of Footsteps, discussing LGBTQ+ identity, chosen family, and building a self-determined life after leaving ultra-Orthodoxy.

In this week's Torah reading we meet a character who is mentioned just once and then vanishes from the story.  Who is he, and what does he teach us?  And what does all of that have to do with being 13?

The window of opportunity is closing.But as long as the spark of vitality remains within us, it’s not yet too late.

A conversation featuring Elly Oltersdorf of Achvat Amim, sharing a firsthand perspective on Jewish solidarity work in the West Bank amid escalating settler violence. Joined by Joe Goldman of New Israel Fund, this conversation will explore what solidarity, moral witness, and shared responsibility can look like in this moment. Co-sponsored by Achvat Amim, New Israel Fund, and Standing Together LA.

Source sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H8amu8GaAckmuDgd7HIknLHTIyz6YQ5UvmZDKExjriY/edit?usp=sharing We are a nation built by people who dared to believe the unbelievable, even when the odds were far worse and the stakes much higher than at any  blackjack table… Our shared history, our family stories, our collective legacy is one of impossible dreams made real– …we are our ancestors’ wildest dreams. -Sen Cory Booker (STAND, 215)

Source sheet: https://ikar.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Midrash-Class-1.pdf In the gaps, the ambiguities, the contradictions, and the mysteries of Torah, Midrash is born. Like a flower emerging from the crack in the sidewalk, a new image captures our attention, transforming the entire landscape. In this three-part series, we’ll investigate the project of Midrash– where these new stories come from and how they shape our understanding of both the Torah and its interpreters.

The Torah's most repetitive chapter may conceal one of its most urgent lessons. Through a series of surprising midrashic connections, we discover that the leaders bringing gifts to the Mishkan are the same figures who once clashed bitterly with Moses during the struggle against Pharaoh. Their last-minute act of reconciliation raises a timeless question: what does it take for a divided people to rebuild trust before it's too late?

Source sheet: https://ikar.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Midrash-Class-1.pdf In the gaps, the ambiguities, the contradictions, and the mysteries of Torah, Midrash is born. Like a flower emerging from the crack in the sidewalk, a new image captures our attention, transforming the entire landscape. In this three-part series, we’ll investigate the project of Midrash– where these new stories come from and how they shape our understanding of both the Torah and its interpreters.

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's weekly parsha study class from 5.27.2026, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

Source sheet: https://ikar.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Shavuot-Day-1-Source-Sheet-5786.pdf We spend so much time preparing to speak, but what does Shavuot and revelation teach us about how we can prepare to listen?

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's weekly parsha study class from 5.20.2026, co-sponsored by IKAR and Hadar.

In the gaps, the ambiguities, the contradictions, and the mysteries of Torah, Midrash is born. Like a flower emerging from the crack in the sidewalk, a new image captures our attention, transforming the entire landscape. In this three-part series, we’ll investigate the project of Midrash– where these new stories come from and how they shape our understanding of both the Torah and its interpreters.

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's Weekly Parsha study class from May 16, 2026, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's Weekly Parsha study from May 6, 2026, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

Two extraordinary moments of recognition in the Book of Ruth remind us that the simple act of seeing one another—of identifying with another’s pain—can restore our humanity and redeem the world. May 16, 2026 – Bamidbar 5786

In 1942, Executive Order 9066 laid the foundation for the mass removal and subsequent incarceration of over 125,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans. The federal government built ten concentration camps throughout the interior of the country where they incarcerated the majority of the Japanese Americans removed from the West Coast. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the closure of the camps. Join IKARite Brian Rosenbaum, Kristen Hayashi (Curator and Director of Collections at the Japanese American National Museum), and J.A.N.M. community members, whose family members were incarcerated, for a discussion about this shameful moment in US history, the echoes of which reverberate today.

How ancient Biblical agricultural laws call us to imagine a radically inclusive social, political, and economic reality. Behar Behukotai 5786 – May 9, 2026

Source sheet: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1u9DAtF5hBMeh46i6JUiXeLmT4TRpaqR4 This is a recording of the final class of the For the Love of Learning series with Rabbi Sharon Brous and Morris Panitz.

Between Pesach and Shavuot, we count the days of the Omer. What does this practice offer us about being present, making the most of the time we have, and cultivating faith in what is to come?