IKAR Podcasts

Rabbi Kasher shares a surprising teaching from his new book on Torah commentary.

Rather than turn against one another, we must turn toward each another. Rather than assume that your gain is my loss, your representation is my disenfranchisement, your liberation is my oppression… we must recognize that your liberation is essential to my own. We must trust that the only way to build beloved community is together. This is the moral message of the Torah: we are our brothers’ keepers.

A new cycle of reading through the Torah! A new book! And a new season of Best Book Ever!

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's Parsha class from October 20, 2022

These are our stories, stories told by IKAR community members about how it feels to struggle with the high cost of affording a place to live. For some of us, housing instability was caused by the breakup of a relationship we had to leave, for others, because of an illness or disability, and for some, simply because the rents keep going up and pay is not keeping pace. We’re telling these stories because we at IKAR are committed to working together for systemic change in our housing policy. Homes end homelessness, and homes are what we all need to feel a measure of safety and security.   We hope you’ll feel inspired to share our stories with friends and we hope that you’ll join us in our work for building more homes.

We think of the Bible as a fixed book, but an ancient debate amongst the Rabbis reveal how close Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) came to being left out of the canon. What’s so dangerous about this book of the Bible, and why is crucially important that it found its way in?

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's Parsha class from October 6, 2022

I spent the summer reading banned books. Here’s what I learned: empathy poses the greatest threat to tyranny. Art is the antidote to numbness. And Torah is the most dangerous book of all.

This is a recording of Rabbi David Kasher's Parsha class from September 29, 2022 that has been edited for brevity. Watch the full class on IKAR's YouTube channel.