IKAR Los Angeles

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's weekly parsha study class from 5.20.2026, co-sponsored by IKAR and Hadar.

In the gaps, the ambiguities, the contradictions, and the mysteries of Torah, Midrash is born. Like a flower emerging from the crack in the sidewalk, a new image captures our attention, transforming the entire landscape. In this three-part series, we'll investigate the project of Midrash– where these new stories come from and how they shape our understanding of both the Torah and its interpreters.

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's Weekly Parsha study class from May 16, 2026, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's Weekly Parsha study from May 6, 2026, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

Two extraordinary moments of recognition in the Book of Ruth remind us that the simple act of seeing one another—of identifying with another's pain—can restore our humanity and redeem the world. May 16, 2026 – Bamidbar 5786

In 1942, Executive Order 9066 laid the foundation for the mass removal and subsequent incarceration of over 125,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans. The federal government built ten concentration camps throughout the interior of the country where they incarcerated the majority of the Japanese Americans removed from the West Coast. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the closure of the camps. Join IKARite Brian Rosenbaum, Kristen Hayashi (Curator and Director of Collections at the Japanese American National Museum), and J.A.N.M. community members, whose family members were incarcerated, for a discussion about this shameful moment in US history, the echoes of which reverberate today.

How ancient Biblical agricultural laws call us to imagine a radically inclusive social, political, and economic reality. Behar Behukotai 5786 – May 9, 2026

Source sheet: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1u9DAtF5hBMeh46i6JUiXeLmT4TRpaqR4 This is a recording of the final class of the For the Love of Learning series with Rabbi Sharon Brous and Morris Panitz.

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?

On Monday May 4, join Hadar West and Rising Song's R. Deborah Sacks Mintz for a festive Hilula - uplifting gathering of song and story.   https://hadar.org/learn/classes-events/hadar-west-lag-baomer-rising-song This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's weekly parsha study class, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

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.

A lone figure escorts the scapegoat into the desert, carrying not just the sins of a people, but the unbearable weight of human truth. What unfolds is a raw confrontation with guilt, memory, and the fragile hope that love can outlast both. An ancient ritual becomes a deeply personal journey toward compassion, repair, and return.

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

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's class The Weekly Parashah from 4.15.2026, 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.

Join Rabbi Sharon Brous and Dalia Dassa Kaye as they discuss Dassa Kaye's new book, Enduring Hostility - The Making of America's Iran Policy, "a timely and rigorous analysis of a half-century of American policymakers' shifting perceptions of Iran, and how they have driven US-Iran relations." Dalia Dassa Kaye is a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and a former Senior Political Scientist and Director of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy.

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

California State Senator Ben Allen, representing Senate District 24, including Beverly Grove, Fairfax, Mid City West, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood, joined Rabbi Sharon Brous in conversation.

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

An introduction to the Yizkor service

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.

How do we think about mo'adim, the fixed times in our calendar when we are asked to show up for a meeting with God? Can we treat these occasions as moments of sacred recognition?

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.

Ezekiel's prophecy, read on the Shabbat of Passover, challenges us to dream audaciously. You cannot tell a redemption story that leaves some behind. And that includes those amongst our own people who've gone terribly astray.

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?

Source sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YKuYB4tSLePVfl1YytWeZSShpH2kdw4P/view Class #16 | March 24, 2026 This is a recording of Rabbi Morris 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.

Join peacebuilder, activist, Palestinian American neurosurgeon Dr. David Hasan, Founder, President & CEO of The Gaza Children Village, in conversation with Rabbi Sharon Brous Recently featured in The New York Times, The Gaza Children Village provides daily education, nutritious meals, healthcare, and trauma-informed support to orphaned and vulnerable children through their Academies of Hope. Co-Sponsored by NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change.

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.

Class #15 | March 17, 2026 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.

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

Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's class The Weekly Parashah from 3.11.2026, co-sponsored by IKAR and Hadar.

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

This is a recording from 3.4.2025 of Rabbi David Kasher's Weekly Parashah class, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR. There were technical difficulties in the last 10 minutes of class and Rabbi Kasher had to join from a different device.

Moses has an encounter this week that he never speaks of again. But we can't seem to stop quoting it. What happened, and what can we learn from Moses' secret?

Michael Lynton and Joshua Steiner discuss their new book, From Mistakes to Meaning: Owning Your Past So It Doesn't Own You (https://www.simonandschuster.com/book...)

Gideon Maltz is the Chief Executive Officer of the Tent Partnership for Refugees, having previously served as Executive Director from 2017 to 2021. The Charles Bronfman Prize recognizes young humanitarians whose work is grounded in their Jewish values and is of universal benefit to all people. The goal of the Prize is to recognize dynamic leaders whose innovation and impact serve as inspiration for the next generation.

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.

Rabbi Morris Panitz's sermon from 2.21.2026

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's class, The Weekly Parashah, a collaboration between Hadar and IKAR.

This is a recording of Rabbi Brad Artson'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.

As the lies become more brazen, practice telling the truth. Parashat Mishpatim

This is a recording from 2.11.2025 of Rabbi David Kasher's Weekly Parashah class, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

Source sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wv-W6BEn2iahSenDoy9F9b4CBDrffE8RQkeyCM621O0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.oq4x0c2v3hwp This is a recording of Rabbi Sharon Brous's 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 from 2.4.2025 of Rabbi David Kasher's Weekly Parashah class, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

It is human nature to retreat from the risks of love and the demands of goodness.  But, it isn't inevitable. Come back to the mountain– painfully aware of why we flee– but recommitted to love and life.

⁠Click here to read the source sheet.⁠ This is a recording of Rabbi Morris Panitz's of For the Love of Learning. 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.

In our first battle with Amalek - the perennial enemy of the Israelites that preys on the vulnerable - the Torah also gives us the tools to fight back. In this moment, we desperately need these tactics, strategy, and spiritual grounding for the fight ahead. It's going to take all of us. 

This is a recording from 1.28.2025 of Rabbi David Kasher's Weekly Parashah class, co-sponsored by Hadar and IKAR.

⁠Click here to read the source sheet.⁠⁠ This is a recording of Rabbi Morris Panitz's of For the Love of Learning. 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.