Beyond The Shtetl

If God is always good, knowing, powerful, and present, why is there evil in the world? In other words, if there is a God, why do bad things happen to good people? Rabbi Potok and Howard Unterberger discuss this essential question, uncovering the power of Jewish community, the meaning of prayer, and the reasons why education is essential for Jews of all ages.

Rabbi Potok and the Adat Shalom community commemorate October 7th on Shabbat and Shmini Atzeret 2026.

We will never stop grieving the loss and tragedy of October 7th 2023. The flydubai near-miss this week again shook us. But we learn from the heroism of the flydubai pilot and the four Israeli passengers, as well as Sukkot observances at the Nova Festival site, that we can find uplift, that we have so many reasons to hope.

Rabbi Potok's Yom Kippur Day sermon, given at Adat Shalom in West Los Angeles. Learn about our prayers for healing and how you can be part of a loved one's caregiving team.

Rabbi Potok's Kol Nidre sermon, given at Adat Shalom in West Los Angeles. Explore the connection between Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur and learn how feeling our grief can make us fall in love with life.

Rabbi Potok's Shabbat Shuvah sermon, given at Adat Shalom in West Los Angeles. We know that the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is our time to "make t'shuvah" and return to the right path in life. But how exactly do we do that? What are the steps we need to take?

Rabbi Potok's Rosh Hashanah Day 2 sermon, given at Adat Shalom in West Los Angeles. Did you know that reading from screens rather than books decreases comprehension while giving the reader false confidence in what they've learned? Listen now to discover how this impacts our relationship with Torah and why we should be a people of the book, not the screen.

Rabbi Potok's Rosh Hashanah Day 1 sermon, given at Adat Shalom in West Los Angeles. We can best build bipartisan support for Israel in 2026 when we can make a progressive case for Israel's importance to the Jewish people worldwide.

Rabbi Potok's Erev Rosh Hashanah sermon, given at Adat Shalom in West Los Angeles. Do we want to have a good year? Or are we objecting to what's happening, before it's even happened?

Watch on video here: https://youtu.be/TMEE9X2-TNk

In this special two-part episode, Ira Pemstein interviews Rabbi Potok! Ira asks all the questions you've thought of but haven't had the chance to ask, and Rabbi Potok shares all the details she's wanted to share but hasn't yet put into a sermon. This is a unique chance to get to know your rabbi in an off-the-bimah interview, just in time for the High Holidays.

In this special two-part episode, Ira Pemstein interviews Rabbi Potok! Ira asks all the questions you've thought of but haven't had the chance to ask, and Rabbi Potok shares all the details she's wanted to share but hasn't yet put into a sermon. This is a unique chance to get to know your rabbi in an off-the-bimah interview, just in time for the High Holidays.