IKAR Podcasts

Between Pesach and Shavuot, we count the days of the Omer. What does this practice offer us about being present, making the most of the time we have, and cultivating faith in what is to come?

Source sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KZ75mWBCUQnUoqY7lwS7yv84Kz6rix_Sb4SVnI1T_rg/edit?tab=t.0 This is a recording of Rabbi Sharon Brous's session of For the Love of Learning class. Every Tuesday morning, a new story from the Talmud. Taught by your rabbis in a monthly rotation, we’ll dig into the strange and compelling world of the Talmud, exploring the ways ancient dilemmas speak to modern questions. Join us in-person at the Event Space (coffee and nosh provided) or over Zoom (B.Y.O. nosh) for as many sessions as possible… your Tuesday will thank you.

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's class The Weekly Parashah from 4.23.2026, co-sponsored by IKAR and Hadar.

Source sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LwZjl53yR6HMKUQJy60udqZc_Yvf45-H/view This is a recording of Rabbi Morris Panitz's session of For the Love of Learning class. Every Tuesday morning, a new story from the Talmud. Taught by your rabbis in a monthly rotation, we’ll dig into the strange and compelling world of the Talmud, exploring the ways ancient dilemmas speak to modern questions. Join us in-person at the Event Space (coffee and nosh provided) or over Zoom (B.Y.O. nosh) for as many sessions as possible… your Tuesday will thank you.

Are we ready to give sound to the silent beginning at Sinai?

The death penalty has no place in a just society. And it has no place in a Jewish society.

Source Sheet here: https://ikar.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/The-Song-and-The-Star.pdf Judaism greets our most powerful experiences of salvation and redemption with song and music. Using the lens of Franz Rosenzweig’s Star of Redemption, we find music not only passively accompanying our experiences of the Divine, but also actively attuning us toward justice, bringing redemption to others and joy to God.

We Jews are obsessed with telling stories – as the core of the Passover Seder and beyond. The obsession to do so is woven into the fabric of Jewish life and practice. Through interpreting our people’s narrative, we become the story we tell about ourselves and we partner with God in completing creation.

As we approach Pesah, we often consume ourselves with cleaning our houses, but we neglect any spiritual preparation for the holiday. What would happen if we let the search for chametz in our houses lead to a search for something in ourselves? What might we find?

From movement leaders to strongmen, the whole world is reeling from the abuses of men striving for greatness. But it’s never too late for a moral reckoning. Humility and decency must be our new metric for leadership.

Parashat Vayikra This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's class The Weekly Parashah from 3.18.2026, co-sponsored by IKAR and Hadar.

This is a heavy and complicated and confusing time. But we must not respond to the spiritual overload by closing off our hearts. Let us pry our hearts open instead. Vayak-hel Pekudei 5786

Class #14 | March 10, 2026 | Click here for source sheet. When the man entered with the boy in his arms, a change came over the place. All of us felt it. Something in the air trembled; a warmth passed through the yard, and we knew that one of the living had come among us. We assembled in small knots, whispering about our former lives. Some remembered their misdeeds, some their triumphs. We debated, we argued, we laughed when the memory allowed it, but always we were together, bound by the strange circumstance of our continued existence. - Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders