IKAR Sermons & Talks

The warnings famously issued in this parashah are not Biblical fantasy—they are living reality. When we allow powerful people to deceive, mock and instrumentalize those most vulnerable, when we cede to a norm of heartlessness, indifference and the perversion of justice, there is no end to the cruelties that will permeate our society. It's time to wake up—to recognize this moment and movement for exactly what it is.

Sifting through a dense catalog of state regulations in search of some inspiration for the High Holy Days - with some help from the Ba'al Shem Tov and Abraham Maslow.

We live in a vast, complex world. It's beautiful, but wracked with devastation and suffering. Infinitesimal in the face of it all, one wonders how they could possibly make a difference. The first four words of Parshat Re'eh teach us that each individual's presence does in fact have an impact on the wider community, and a single action can even tip the whole world toward good. Let's choose to live like every single one of us matters, like the way we live can bring us closer to a healed, redeemed world.

As we prepare to bring our oldest to college, I feel for Moses, struggling to say goodbye to his own children as they stand poised to enter the Promised Land, knowing this is a journey they must take without his guiding presence by their side. Somehow, amidst the confused, rambling contradictions, Moses helps b'nai Yisraelremember what matters most, and reminds us just what we need to hear as well.

Stories from Rabbi Kasher's early prayer days. A rabbinic list of ten types of prayer. And a prayer reframe from the Sfas Emes.

Tisha b'Av is a day of communal grief-- we fast, lament and hold the memory of the greatest catastrophes the Jewish people have endured. The danger in revisiting the tragedies of generations past is that our rituals foster a distorted self-perception, a feeling of eternal victimization. Instead, we must remember because grief is an expression of love, because there is an urgent moral message in the stories of our suffering that we must hear today, and because we are drawn again and again, through our collective grief, into

What's the first step of a spiritual journey? According to the Me'or Einyaim (18th century Hasidic Master), it's not a grand gesture or a dramatic departure. Instead, it's the recognition that we're disconnected, spiritually dehydrated and yearning for something more. Once that realization is acknowledged and felt, the journey has already begun. We'll find the water we need.

The Legend of Serah bat Asher. And a commandment we too often overlook.

Recovery and Bilaam's addictive tendencies.

The Israelites have begun complaining. They say they miss the meat and melons they had back in Egypt. Really?! After God freed them from slavery and is raining down manna from heaven?! These ungrateful wretches! Disgraceful. But, then again…are really they so different from us?

Thoughts on the dangers and the blessings of flag-waving

In such a turbulent time we need to remember what love looks like. The unique mutual devotion of the biblical heroines Naomi and Ruth teaches us that our interpersonal relationships can have transformative and healing power — for us, our descendants, and the human community.

After the tragic shooting in Buffalo rooted in White Supremacy and hate, we look to the Omer, a time on the Jewish calendar associated with mourning. The themes of Lag b'Omer offer some guidance on what our society needs.

A Jewish response to the recently leaked Supreme Court draft opinion intending to overturn Roe v. Wade. Find the transcript on our website: https://ikar.org/sermons/im-a-private-person/

 Reflections after a recent trip to Israel.

Our Passover story was made possible by a quiet revolutionary spirit manifested through four female archetypes.

Egypt is not just a place. It's our addiction to fossil fuels, our extractive relationship to the Earth, our rendering of Creation solely and soullessly as an instrument for greed.  In each generation, every individual must see themselves as though they left Egypt, which begs the question: on the road to freedom, what will each of us do to leave Egypt behind us?    

One of the silver linings of the pandemic is that we have all become better readers of Leviticus. Source sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nKrbAHi8Kx9U8WJSm8nJC2vSPRn_XLRTIwxs5qdJI0g/edit

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Wandering through the library of Jewish legal texts, the careful observer may take notice of a curious trend. For reasons unclear, many of the classic books of Jewish law take their titles from - of all things - the various pieces of the High Priest's clothing.

We aren't just shaped by the past.  It isn't a one-way street, dead ending in the present. Our tradition asks us to continue to be in active relationship with our loved ones even after they die. Caring for the deceased means advancing their core values, their life work, and dreams. And it means upholding our responsibilities, both as individuals and a community, in the moments of most profound loss.   #hevrakadisha #mourningrituals #yahrtzeit #love&loss

On my final shabbat before sabbatical, we explore the connection between na'aseh v'nishmah—doing and discovering—and shmita, a periodic break in the rhythm of doing to digest lessons learned and deepen our roots as we prepare for the next chapter of our flourishing.

Jewish vulnerability is rooted in the enduring awareness of those who want to do us harm. And the world is full of goodness. We must learn to hold both.