IKAR

This is Rabbi Sharon Brous, Rabbi at IKAR, where we're dedicated to reinvigorating Jewish community, ritual, and learning, all while laying the foundation for a just and loving society.

You're listening to IKAR's podcast, where you can hear our sermons from Shabbat and holidays, our teachings, our guest speakers, basically anything we think worth hearing that we can capture and stream, you can listen to right here.

The whole Megillah.

I mean, literally, the whole Megillah.

That's a good thing to do.

And in fact, I know that you're doing that here at IKAR.

You have a morning Talmud class here at IKAR.

So you have some Talmud here.

And I'm happy to supplement that Talmud education.

This is Rabbi Sharon Brous, Rabbi at IKAR, where we're dedicated to reinvigorating Jewish community, ritual, and learning, all while laying the foundation for a just and loving society.

You're listening to IKAR's podcast, where you can hear our sermons from Shabbat and holidays, our teachings, our guest speakers, basically anything we think worth hearing that we can capture and stream, you can listen to right here.

The whole Megillah.

I mean, literally, the whole Megillah.

This is Rabbi Sharon Brous, Rabbi at IKAR, where we're dedicated to reinvigorating Jewish community, ritual, and learning, all while laying the foundation for a just and loving society.

You're listening to IKAR's podcast, where you can hear our sermons from Shabbat and holidays, our teachings, our guest speakers, basically anything we think worth hearing that we can capture and stream, you can listen to right here.

The whole Megillah.

I mean, literally, the whole Megillah.

It's like us showing up as mourners together through whatever grief we're experiencing, coming together, sitting down next to each other, and not really trying to remove the pain, but just being a witness.

Well, that's the beautiful thing about the IKAR Zoom space.

And it happens in other minyanim, live and memorex, for those of us who remember that reference.

It's an opportunity to just be there for each other.

I didn't know them and I didn't know what it said, but I knew I had to show up and say it.

And I needed at least 10 people around me to say it and to say amen.

And so finding this space at IKAR, to be able to come together and cry and grieve and speak the same language or sing the same song.

It has been super healing for me.

This is Rabbi Sharon Brous, Rabbi at IKAR, where we're dedicated to reinvigorating Jewish community, ritual, and learning, all while laying the foundation for a just and loving society.

You're listening to IKAR's podcast, where you can hear our sermons from Shabbat and holidays, our teachings, our guest speakers, basically anything we think worth hearing that we can capture and stream, you can listen to right here.

The whole

Megillah.

And now to today's exciting conversation.

My guest today is Rabbi Sharon Brous, the founder and senior rabbi of IKAR, a Jewish community in Los Angeles, and one of the most prominent and influential voices in American Jewish life.

She's also the author of The Amen Effect, a book about the power of human connection, especially in times of grief and loneliness.

Rabbi Brous, thank you so much for joining me.

And as soon as you step outside the boundaries of that script, you really are taking your, you're taking a great risk.

And I know many colleagues who've lost their jobs because they've stepped outside the script and tried to follow their own moral compass.

So why am I able to speak the way I do at IKAR? First of all, because I'm a stakeholder.

As I said, you know, I don't need to credential myself every time I speak at IKAR.

[upbeat music] This is Rabbi Sharon Brous, Rabbi at IKAR, where we're dedicated to reinvigorating Jewish community, ritual, and learning, all while laying the foundation for a just and loving society.

You're listening to IKAR's podcast, where you can hear our sermons from Shabbat and holidays, our teachings, our guest speakers.

Basically anything we think worth hearing that we can capture and stream, you can listen to right here.

The whole megillah.