IKAR Podcasts

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Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God - Rabbi Morris Panitz Jan 26, 2025

Show notes

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.

Preparing for Festivities and Funerals - Rabbi Sharon Brous Jan 19, 2025

Show notes

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.

Reflections on HOME, From Amidst the Fire - Rabbi Sharon Brous Jan 12, 2025

Show notes

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

The Names We Carry - Rabbi Morris Panitz Jan 05, 2025

Show notes

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.

Treachery Or Truth? - Rabbi Deborah Silver Dec 29, 2024

Show notes

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

We Cannot Escape One Another - Rabbi Sharon Brous Dec 15, 2024

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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

"Olive Days" - Author Jessica Elisheva Emerson with Rabbi Sharon Brous Dec 08, 2024

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Saving Abigail - Author Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali with Rabbi Sharon Brous Dec 08, 2024

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The Mouth of the Well - Rabbi Hannah Jensen Dec 08, 2024

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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.

Bound and Unbound - Rabbi Morris Panitz Dec 01, 2024

Show notes

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