Ikar Los Angeles

What's the connection between gossip and skin disease?

One of the silver linings of the pandemic is that we have all become better readers of Leviticus.

Parsha study with Rabbi David Kasher from March 31, 2022

Can a house get sick? The Torah seems to think so.

Reflections on mourning from Moed Katan and Parshat Shemini. In memory of Steven J. Kasher, Z"L.

You know the cycle. Front page headlines retreat to the back pages and eventually disappear from both the paper and our attention. Even the most horrifying headlines, those emerging from the brutal war in Ukraine, risk being ignored in the frenetic pace of our news cycle. We must not turn away. Even in the absence of a clear political path forward, we need to keep our hearts open to the stories, pleas, and suffering of the Ukrainian people, responding with empathy, advocacy, and resources.

This week, we receive the first major list of kosher laws. But whyare we supposed to keep kosher? There are some classic answers. But Rabbi Kasher's got a theory of his own.

In this drasha we explore how Esther and Moses overcame their resistance to action, when that action involved risk; Serah bat Asher and Ruth's capacities to draw strength and purpose from the past and imagine themselves as agents of a better future; and how all their stories shed light on our lives and world today, particularly in relation to our responsibility for the children in the LA County Foster Care system.

Parsha study with Rabbi David Kasher from March 10, 2022 

The Book of Leviticus spends a lot of time explaining what to do once we have committed sins. But how did we get there in the first place? What drives us to sin? For that, we turn to the great commentary of the Kli Yakar.

To maintain that only certain expressions of humanity are sacred, that some lives are inherently more valuable than others, is fundamentally incompatible with the truths of our tradition and the core principles of a moral society. As we face the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine alongside a growing refugee crisis worldwide, we must heed the call of our tradition to love the stranger, opening our hearts and borders to all those in need of safe refuge. We are all made in the image of God, interconnected and morally accountable to one another.

Parsha study with Rabbi David Kasher from 3/3/2022

As we close out the Book of Exodus, a 13th century Spanish preacher helps us, finally, make sense of all the details.

A sermon on our relationship to technology (in which Rabbi Kasher gets his dates confused and accidentally adds a year to the pandemic!)

We pray for the safety of all the people of Ukraine as they face the terror of war and for the wisdom of our own leaders to guide our country to a response rooted in justice.

Who knows how to take the prophet's heavenly vision and bring it down to the ground? The Shadow knows!

What if the redemption our tradition intended was not that of some cataclysmic historical shift, but was about brief and fleeting moments of goodness and light that shine within the chaos and darkness that invariably surrounds us. Real moments with real meaning, and that neither could nor should last forever.