September 24th, 2022

During this time of cheshbon hanefesh or accounting of the soul, are we keeping our corner of the body of the Jewish people healthy with communally, unified practice? I believe, it’s time to create a liberally minded halacha (practice of Jewish law) to meet our sensibilities of the day yet remain true to the commandments of our tradition.

 

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September 17th, 2022 — Parshat Ki Tavo

9/17 – Parshat Ki Tavo

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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.

September 17th, 2022 — Parshat Ki Tavo

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.

September 10th, 2022 — Parshat Ki Teitzei

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. 

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August 27th, 2022 — Parshat Re'eh

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.

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August 20th, 2022 — Parshat Eikev

As we prepare to bring our oldest to college, I feel for Moses, struggling to say goodbye to his own children, poised to enter the Promised Land on a part of the journey they must take without him. Somehow, amidst the confused, rambling contradictions of his farewell speech, Moses helps b’nai Yisrael remember what matters most, and reminds us just what we need to hear as well.

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August 13th, 2022 — Parshat Vaetchanan

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

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August 6th, 2022 — Shabbat Hazon (preceding Tisha b’Av)

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 community.

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July 16th, 2022 — Parshat Pinchas

Recovery and Bilaam’s addictive tendencies.

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June 25th, 2022 — Parshat Sh'lach

“There were four judges in Sodom, and they were named for their actions: Shakrai, meaning liar, Shakrurai, habitual liar, Zayfai, forger, and Matzlei Dina, perverter of justice” (Babylonian Talmud).   In our grief and rage for the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, it is clear that we are living through the return of Sodom.  But, Sodom and subsequent corrupt societies were undermined and ultimately destroyed through clarity of conscience and determined action, both of which are urgently needed today.

 

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June 4th, 2022 — Shabbat Bamidbar

Thoughts on the dangers and the blessings of flag-waving.

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May 28th, 2022 — Parashat Bechukotai

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.

Watch: YouTube

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May 21st, 2022 — Parashat Behar
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. Listen: Apply Podcasts / Spotify

May 14th, 2022 — Parasha Emor 5782

A Jewish response to the recently leaked Supreme Court draft opinion intending to overturn Roe v. Wade.

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April 30th, 2022 — Parshat Acharei Mot

Upon returning from his recent trip to Israel, Rabbi Kasher shares some reflections on the many Jewish identities he encountered there. He then offers three models for thinking about the question Jewish Identity: one drawn from Parshat Acharei Mot, one from a radical 19th-century Hassidic thinker, and one from the modern Hebrew dictionary.

April 27th, 2022 — Pesach VIII

John Destler (née Hans Wolfgang Destler) was born in Berlin on October 13, 1931. One of his earliest memories is of watching from the balcony of his family’s apartment as Hitler and Mussolini drove by in a motorcade. From there, he was both witness to history, a young child caught in the brutal tides of WWII, the Shoah, and family trauma. What defines a childhood steeped in the devastation of war, persecution, the threat of annihilation, and personal and international rupture?We welcomed John to our community to talk about his unique experiences and the trauma and challenges that did not end in 1945, including a lifelong battle with addiction that he was able, at the age of 72, to face and heal.Co-Sponsored by The Righteous Conversations Project, A Program of Remember Us

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Watch: Vimeo / Video Credit: IKAR’s 6th grade 2021 Limudim students in collaboration with Shoah survivors.

April 16th, 2022
Our Passover story was made possible by a quiet revolutionary spirit manifested through four female archetypes. Follow Rabbi Tova on Instagram @rabbi_tova. Click to listen: Apple Podcast / Spotify Click to watch: YouTube

April 9th, 2022 — Parashat Metzora

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?

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April 2nd, 2022 — Parashat Tazria

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

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March 26th, 2022 — Parashat Shmini

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

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