IKAR Podcasts

Our Torah teaches clearly that during war you cannot cut down enemy trees. How does that impact our understanding of the fires ravaging Maui? The horrible toll of colonization and climate change is all around us, what are we called to do?

Within the story of a technical, 2nd century, out-of-the-box legal maneuver is a much greater lesson about the dangers of a fracturing social reality. It’s a cautionary tale about what’s at stake when a society is perilously far from its foundational ideals. A tale, sadly, as modern as it is ancient.   

What if what changes us are not in the earthquake, the wind, the fire, but the tiny, almost indiscernible moments in-between? Heading into the holiest time of year, amidst so many rapturous challenges, let’s see what we can learn when we pay attention to the small stories.

When we say 'Hear O, Israel,' are we really listening?

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets protesting a proposed judicial overhaul that will dangerously reduce the power of the Supreme Court.Isaiah’s message today, on Shabbat Hazon, a Shabbat of vision, challenges to the people to take action and choose a path toward hope, not disaster.

The underexplored Jewish number of 42 traces our journey from slavery to freedom and deepens our relationship with God. What can we learn from Moshe’s experiences of that number to help inform our own journeys with God, freedom, and legacy?

There is no justice in answering violence with more violence. It’s not only that the death penalty is ridden with racism and gross inequity, and that every execution potentially risks the life of an innocent. It’s that all people—even those capable of great harm—have infinite worth, and we all—even those most set in their ways—possess the capacity for growth and change. None of us has the right to deny that to another.

What can Aaron’s rod teach us about this parashah, her person and our lives?

The sin of the spies sent to assess the Promised Land? These princes couldn't fathom sharing power. That failure of moral imagination cost a whole generation, condemned to wander, landless and vulnerable for four decades before entering the land. Like so many people of privilege after them, the spies preferred that everyone suffer rather than share the abundance equitably and fairly. Let us not make the same miscalculation.

(Trigger Warning: Discussion of teenage suicidal ideation. Save and share this number: 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline for when you need it.)Those feelings of aloneness, or differentness, or social irrelevance are as old as time. In Aaron, something beautiful and eternal was born from the heartache. What about in us? The reminder that together we can beat back the darkness... by honoring the light that dwells within each of us.