IKAR Podcasts

Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/546667?editor=1

We must reject the way of eternal war. The hostages must be returned to their loved ones. Humanitarian aid must reach the people of Gaza immediately. Israeli and Palestinian leadership must commit to a long term negotiated peace. There is another way, and saying so is not betrayal… it is love. Parashat Tetzaveh 5784

Source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/545191?editor=1

My reflections on a week spent at the U.S./Mexico border, witnessing up close the horrors that are happening every single day. We continue to makeit nearly impossible for people seeking asylum to safely enter this country andwith the numbers of displaced people around the world growing quickly, we needbetter solutions. The Torah's images of the keruvim (cherubs) offer us two versions- what will we choose?

If law is the ground upon which we stand, story must be the waterthat softens the soil.  When law leaves story behind, it runs the risk ofdisregarding the human beings it's meant to protect.  In the last year anda half, since Roe V. Wade was overturned, far too many women and people whoneed abortion access have been dangerously denied care. It’s time to tell theirstories and protect the right to reproductive freedom. 

Source sheet

It is precisely when the public square is consumed with fantasies of binary outcomes and our hearts are full of anguish that we honor those Israelis and Palestinians who are working in partnership to imagine a just and peaceful future. Rabbi Brous joins May Pundak and Dr. Rula Hardal, the Israeli and Palestinian co directors of A Land for All, to discuss their shared vision. Learn more about the vision, the work and the promise of ALFA here. 

What happens when one memory is replaced by another, when a moment of discernment is replaced by an act of force?The people are free, but Moses is caught between past and future, and the consequences are tragic.