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 October 7, The New Israel Fund has been funding emergency support and resettlement for Israelis forced from their homes, and they have been supporting Israelis and Palestinians working together for a just future. They have now launched a campaign to feed the people of Gaza ...

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 look ahead to the new month we also look back at the last six months - what seeds were planted that we can reap now? What seeds can we plant now to harvest something new in Tishrei? Let's get started.

[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 is broken today, and risks being fractured beyond repair. We must sound the alarm.

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 from God’s wrath. Only then can healing begin.

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 another way, and saying so is not betrayal… it is love. Parashat Tetzaveh 5784

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 displaced people around the world growing quickly, we need better solutions. The Torah's images of the keruvim (cherubs) offer us two versions - what will we choose?

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, since Roe V. Wade was overturned, far too many women and people who need abortion access have been dangerously denied care. It’s time to tell their stories and protect the right to reproductive freedom.

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. Rabbi Brous joins May Pundak and Dr. Rula Hardal, the Israeli and Palestinian co directors of A Land for All, to discuss their shared vision. Learn more about the vision, the work and the promise of ALFA here.

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 tenderness toward those who are holding fresh or age-old wounds of worry and grief. Today we’ll meet in the darkness.

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

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