The Sermons I Needed to Hear Right Now

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Government, News

4.6 • 11K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2023

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is a conversation about the relationship between Jewishness and the Jewish State. About believing some aspects of Israel have become indefensible and also believing that Israel itself must be defended. About what it means when a religion built on the lessons of exile creates a state that inflicts exile on others. About the ugly, recurrent reality of antisemitism. You know, the easy stuff. In these past few months, I’ve been moved by the sermons of Rabbi Sharon Brous, which have managed to hold these paradoxes with more grace and prophetic wisdom than most. Brous is the founding and senior rabbi of IKAR, a Jewish community based in Los Angeles, and the author of the forthcoming book “The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World.” And so I asked her to be on the show to talk about things that are deeply uncomfortable to talk about. We discuss the “great dream” that Israel represents for generations of Jews; Brous’s Yom Kippur sermon reckoning with the moral cost of Israel’s decades-long occupation and its increasingly right-wing government; the “existential loneliness” she and many in her community felt on Oct. 7; the antisemitism she witnessed in the wake of Oct. 7; how experiences of exile throughout history have shaped the Jewish psyche and speak to us now; stories from her visit with residents of the Kfar Aza kibbutz as they mourned their dead; why “bearing sacred witness” is a core spiritual commitment; and more. Mentioned: “This Is the Moral Earthquake” by Rabbi Sharon Brous (sermon delieverd on Sep. 25, 2023) “We’ve Lost So Much. Let’s Not Lose Our Damn Minds” by Rabbi Sharon Brous (sermon delieverd on Oct. 14, 2023) “We Are Hebrews. We Must Act Like It.” by Rabbi Sharon Brous (sermon delivered on Oct. 28, 2023) Book Recommendations: The Prophets by Abraham J. Heschel To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Emefa Agawu and Rollin Hu. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Sonia Herrero.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	From New York Times opinion, this is the Ezra Klein Show. Oh, Everything I'm about to talk about is hard to talk about. It is hard to talk about
0:29.4	because it's personal to me. It's hard to talk about because it's happening in the midst of an active
0:36.0	hilacious war. And it's hard to talk about because even when there is not a war, this is just hard to talk about. Maybe I'll start here. I think something
0:47.1	we're seeing in the politics in America around Israel right now. I think it reflects three generations with very
0:54.6	different lived experiences of what Israel is. You've older Americans,
0:59.4	say Joe Biden, who saw Israel as the haven for the Jews, and who also saw Israel when it was
1:06.2	weak and small, when it really could have been wiped off the map by its neighbors.
1:11.4	They have a lived sense of Israel's impossibility. by its their views of Israel formed around the Israel of the Six Day War in 1967,
1:25.0	when its neighbors' masks to try and strangle Israel when it was young,
1:28.0	or the Yom Kippur War in 1973 when they surprised attacked Israel 50 years ago.
1:34.4	Then there's the next generation, my generation, I think.
1:39.1	And I think of us as this straddle generation.
1:42.1	We only ever knew a strong Israel, an Israel that was
1:45.5	undoubtedly the strongest country in the region, a nuclear Israel, an Israel
1:50.5	backed by America's unwavering military and political support.
1:55.0	That wasn't always true, at least not to the extent now. In his great book,
1:59.2	The Much-Too Promised Land, Aaron David Miller, points out that before the Yom Kupor War in 1973, Israel ranked 24th in foreign
2:07.2	aid from the U.S. 24th. Within a few years of that war, it ranked first, as it typically has since.
2:16.0	We also knew an Israel that was an occupying force, a country that could and did impose its
2:21.1	will on Palestinians.
2:23.2	And I don't want to be euphemistic about this.
2:25.0	An Israel in which Palestinians were an oppressed class,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New York Times Opinion, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of New York Times Opinion and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.