IKAR Podcasts

Open Doors, Open Hearts - Rabbi Sharon Brous

How can we ensure that the Passover Seder is not performative, but transformative? When we open our doors to those who are hungry, something in our hearts opens too. This is how we begin to write a new liberation story. Since...

BBE: Come Closer - Parshat Shemini

Source Sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/556558?editor=1

The Nightingale of Iran - Discussion with Danielle and Galeet Dardasht

Kabbalat Shabbat dinner discussion with sisters Danielle and Galeet Dardashti from The Nightingale of Iran Podcast

Signs of Spring - Rabbi Hannah Jensen

This week we are entering into the new Hebrew month of Nisan. The rabbis debate whether this month or Tishrei (the month with Rosh HaShanah) are the beginning of the year. Some say both. Creation is a process. As we...

[BBE] Concessions to Human Nature -  Parshat Tzav

Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/554948?editor=1

"Judaism Disrupted": Author Michael Strassfeld in conversation with Rabbi Panitz

Clearing Away the Ashes - Rabbi Ronit Tsadok

A Priestly ritual offers a path toward spiritual preparation for Passover

Generative Uncertainty - Rabbi Morris Panitz

Live, for a day, without all the answers, without all the assumptions about each other that cast a giant shadow over how we relate to one another.  Who knows what kind of humanity might emerge from such a day, from such a world?

On Our Best Behavior - Elise Loehnen in conversation with Rabbi Sharon Brous

The Last Bulwark Against Authoritarianism - Rabbi Sharon Brous

The Purim story reminds us that the real danger is when overt meets latent antisemitism. And in a culture steeped in antisemitism, literally no one is safe. The bulwark against authoritarianism is a multiracial, multifaith coalition, and that coalition...

Conversation with Marshall Goldberg

BBE: Building a Home for God - Parshat Pekudei

Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/551802?lang=bi

BBE: Broken Torah for Broken People - Parshat Vayakhel

Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/550092?editor=1

BBE: The Origins of Yom Kippur Liturgy - Parshat Ki Tisa

Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/548331?editor=1

Standing Together

A conversation with Standing Together, a grassroots movement mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice.

Everything is Broken. We Must Write a New Story. - Rabbi Sharon Brous

In a landscape of utter devastation, the spiritual work of choosing hope in the heartache.

Let Me Be - Rabbi Morris Panitz

When God threatens to wipe out the Israelites, Moses recognizes, in the subtleties of language, that history is on the verge of dangerously repeating.  Moses must become a new kind of leader, one who does everything in his power to save the people...

BBE: Everyday Torah - Parashat Tetzaveh

Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/546667?editor=1

Subculture Vulture: Moshe Kasher & Rabbi Sharon Brous in Conversation

I Will Not Turn Away - Rabbi Sharon Brous

We must reject the way of eternal war. The hostages must be returned to their loved ones. Humanitarian aid must reach the people of Gaza immediately. Israeli and Palestinian leadership must commit to a long term negotiated peace. There is...

BBE: The Third Rail - Parshat Terumah

Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/545191?editor=1

Bearing Witness to the Space Between - Rabbi Hannah Jensen

My reflections on a week spent at the U.S./Mexico border, witnessing up close the horrors that are happening every single day. We continue to make it nearly impossible for people seeking asylum to safely enter this country and with the numbers of...

Tell the Story - Rabbi Morris Panitz

If law is the ground upon which we stand, story must be the water that softens the soil.  When law leaves story behind, it runs the risk of disregarding the human beings it's meant to protect.  In the last year and a half,...

BBE: Third Category of Law - Parshat Mishpatim

Source sheet

The Amen Effect: Rabbi Sharon Brous and Michaela Watkins in Conversation

Imagining a Land for All

It is precisely when the public square is consumed with fantasies of binary outcomes and our hearts are full of anguish that we honor those Israelis and Palestinians who are working in partnership to imagine a just and peaceful future....

Remembering Who We Are - Rabbi Morris Panitz

What happens when one memory is replaced by another, when a moment of discernment is replaced by an act of force? The people are free, but Moses is caught between past and future, and the consequences are tragic.

The Golem of Brooklyn - Adam Mansbach & Hillel Tigay

Lunch and Learn with author, Adam Mansbach who joins us to discuss their book The Golem of Brooklyn with Hillel Tigay. Due to technical difficulties, the beginning of this program was not recorded.

Try to Make a Dent in the Darkness - Rabbi Sharon Brous

We must speak of the darkness that lives in some of our bodies and spirits, a darkness that sometimes manifests as depression, despair, and suicidal ideation, a darkness that may feel inescapable. I offer these words with great love and...

[BEST BOOK EVER] DON'T DELAY! - Parshat Bo

Source Sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/538397?lang=bi

[BEST BOOK EVER] Shortness of Breath - Parshat Va'era

Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/536848?lang=bi

Rep. Katie Porter and Rabbi Sharon Brous in Conversation

Join Rabbi Sharon Brous in conversation with Rep. Katie Porter, who represents the 47th Congressional District in Orange County, California

What Gets You Up in the Morning? - Rabbi Sharon Brous

There’s so much keeping us up at night. This war is breaking us. But even in the darkness, we can choose to embrace life. Joy. Love. And hope for a better future. What gets you up in the morning?

We Have No Other Choice - Rabbi Sharon Brous

A medieval text cries out to us from the depths of Jacob’s anguished heart to our own: beware lest we see a whole world full of bloodthirsty predators. Adding grief to grief will never heal the broken heart. We...

Ask for Wonder #6: Exploring the Thought of Abraham Joshua Heschel with Rabbi Morris Panitz

Plant One Tiny Seed - Rabbi Sharon Brous

A seemingly unnecessary detail in the text hints at a multigenerational reminder: the generational transmission of hope is the most audacious and profound expression of spiritual resistance in a cruel and broken world. So lift your gaze to a future...

BBE: DREAM INTERPRETATION - Parshat Mikeitz

https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/531708?lang=bi

Ask for Wonder #5: Exploring the Thought of Abraham Joshua Heschel with Rabbi Morris Panitz

Ask for Wonder #4: Exploring the Thought of Abraham Joshua Heschel with Rabbi Morris Panitz

Visions of Peace - Rabbi Morris Panitz

A little jar with a remarkable journey tells a story desperately needed in this time of war. Perpetual violence is not inevitable. Never abandon the conviction that peace is our ultimate hope, and it can be found.

BBE: RETURN TO THE HOUSE OF GOD – Parshat Vayishlakh

Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/528461?lang=bi

Remembering and Rebuilding - A Conversation with Kibbutz Kfar Azza Survivors

In the wake of the devastating attacks on southern Israel on October 7th, which resulted in so many taken hostage, murdered, and even more displaced, our hearts go out to all those affected. Kibbutz Kfar Azza, among the hardest hit,...

Ask for Wonder #3: Exploring the Thought of Abraham Joshua Heschel with Rabbi Morris Panitz

From Rabbi Panitz's class on 11.21.2023

Women Wage Peace - Rabbi Sharon Brous

When women’s voices are ignored, diminished and marginalized, everyone loses. Jacob loved Rachel, but he failed to take seriously her anguished voice. Thousands of years later, Israeli spotters—women in intelligence—were ignored… at the peril of the nation. Why we must...

Shabbat Sermon - Rabbi Brad Artson

In Memory of Vivian Silver - Rabbi Sharon Brous

BBE: WAS ESAU BAD? - Parshat Toldot

Rabbi David Kasher's Weekly Parsha Study. Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/525551?lang=bi

Ask for Wonder #2: Exploring the Thought of Abraham Joshua Heschel with Rabbi Morris Panitz

There’s Room on My Island - Rabbi Sharon Brous

Trauma awakens our ancestor Yitzhak to the possibility of a third way. Third way people fight to see humanity, even when our own humanity has been denied, and insist on complexity in a world of simplistic certainties, and fluidity in a...

BBE: Legends of the Cave - Parshat Hayei Sarah