In 2016, Rabbi Sharon Brous, 46, gave a Ted Talk titled “It’s Time to Reclaim Religion”; since then more than 1.3 million people have viewed her powerful message. In 2004, Rabbi Brous founded IKAR, a nonaffiliated, nontraditional “Jewish community” in Los Angeles. She’s the chief rabbi of IKAR, which strives to reimagine and reinvigorate Jewish spirituality and practice for modern life. IKAR means “the essence” or “the heart of the matter” in Hebrew.
Quote: “Religious ritual and rites were essentially designed to be the container through which we would hold onto the remnants of that sacred reveletory encounter that birthed the religion in the first place. The problem is that after a few centuries, the date remains on the calendar but the love affair is long dead.
“That’s when we find ourselves in endless, mindless repetitions of words that don’t mean anything to us; rising and being seated because someone has asked us to; holding onto jealously guarded doctrine that’s completely and wildly out of step with our contemporary reality; engaging in perfunctory practice simply because that’s the way things have always been done.”
Source: ikar-la.org
Learn more about Rabbi Sharon Brous and IKAR. >>
Watch the Ted Talk “It’s Time to Reclaim Religion” by Rabbi Brous [16:27] >>
Photo: YouTube
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