Ikar Los Angeles

Reflections on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s use of the Hebrew Scriptures.

In honor of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s 50th yahrtzeit, we revisit the central claims of his theology, exploring how wonder and a personal relationship with God can reorient our approach to a meaningful life.  Wonder reminds us that we are recipients of a gift, summoning us to the ultimate question: what are we to do with this gift?

Much of the time it feels like we're on a different path than what we hoped for or asked for or dreamed. What can Joseph and Betzalel teach us about the gifts of two very divergent paths? What do we learn from a path that is both short and long?

The candles in our window don’t just remind us of the miracles our ancestors experienced… they invite the world into our story. See us! we say. See our trial and our triumph, our struggle and our survival. Our story becomes real when it is held with care. And that may be the real gift, one we can give each other every day.

What would happen if we approached life with a posture of fullness rather than one of scarcity?

Rabbi Sharon Brous and Ari Wallach in conversation from 12/3/2022

Even decades after Jacob stole the birthright from his brother, he sees himself, fundamentally, as a liar and a thief. When we don’t believe we can change, we invest in subverting the truth and inverting reality. Our country is in the grips of a multi-generational obfuscation, entrenching in a dangerous lie that we cannot reckon with the past, that healing is not possible from past wrongs. But individuals and nations need not be defined by our moral failings. There is another way.

Source sheet here: https://ikar.box.com/s/t1tfkt5grb10t96zuxakm00j3iq0qnjo In perhaps the most heartbreaking verse of the Torah, Esav cries out to his father for a blessing just like his younger brother had received. To understand these tears and the tragic arc set into motion by this moment, we turn to a surprising source for insight: The Book of Esther. Uncovering the hidden conversation between these two texts implores us to love expansively and without limits.

There’s nothing brave about regurgitating antisemitic lies. That’s not truth to power, it’s unwitting support of white power. It’s time to deconstruct these narrative fallacies, and tell a new story.

Join us for a conversation between Rabbi Sharon Brous and leaders from Breaking the Silence, an NGO providing discharged Israeli personnel and reservists a means to confidentially recount their experiences in the Occupied Territories. This is a Q&A and discussion that surrounded a screening of Mission Hebron, a short documentary by Rona Segal based on the testimony of Israeli soldiers who served in the West Bank. To see the documentary, visit our YouTube channel here.

How can we understand so called religious people aligning with a regressive politics that relishes stripping rights rather than expanding them, that honors guns over humans, fetuses over hungry children, incarceration over restorative justice, environmental devastation over stewardship? Our core theological commitments must manifest in the reality we seek to build, a society of compassion and wakefulness, love and justice. One that honors the divine image in every person.

Love matters most when our family is in danger. A love that reminds you how far you’ll fallen, a love that helps you walk away from the path of self-destruction. Avram exhibits that kind of love towards his nephew Lot, and we must too towards Israel, as they walk an increasingly dangerous path.  

Rev. Dr. Najuma Smith-Pollard, spiritual leader of Word of Encouragement Community Church, joins Rabbi Sharon Brous in conversation on recent racist and anti-Semitic incidents and how true friendship and allyship is the only way to overcome bigotry.

There is a direct line from the 1995 murder of Yitzhak Rabin to the ascendance of right wing, ultranationalist extremists in Israel today. The election this past week has me revisiting a question that has haunted me for more than 25 years: did the assassin murder a man or a movement? 

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's Parsha class from November 3, 2022

Rabbi Kasher shares a surprising teaching from his new book on Torah commentary.

Rather than turn against one another, we must turn toward each another. Rather than assume that your gain is my loss, your representation is my disenfranchisement, your liberation is my oppression… we must recognize that your liberation is essential to my own. We must trust that the only way to build beloved community is together. This is the moral message of the Torah: we are our brothers’ keepers.