Let’s talk about the Shema for a second, shall we? It’s a basis of our faith. We recite it twice a day. And this week is the last chance we get to use it in a dvar torah this year. Parshat Ekev ...

I grew up praying to a god in a language I did not understand. In particular, as an observant Conservative Jewish American (that is, “Conservative Jewish, not “conservative, Jewish”), I grew up ...

The Shema bookends Yom Kippur. It is dramatically said at Yom Kippur’s onset. While the sentence Baruch Shem Kevod which follows Shema is normatively said quietly, on Yom Kippur it is said aloud.

Eli Sharabi was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th, and taken hostage by Hamas. Sharabi had never recited the Shema. Until he was in Gaza. Even though he was never a religious man ...

One of my earliest memories is of reciting the Shema each Sunday morning in heder. Although I didn’t come from a religious family – we were more your traditional three-times-a-year shul-goers – and I ...

To hear – even in the dark. To listen – when we feel silenced. To act – when it would be easier to despair. To love – when hate seems louder. To believe – even now. It is impossible to write this week ...

(JTA) — Tens of thousands of Jews around the world joined in a collective recitation of the Shema prayer on Thursday that was broadcast from Jerusalem’s Western Wall to support the more than 130 ...

הרב קוקצילום: אוסף התצלומים של צדוק בסן. The celebrated first Chief Rabbi of pre-state Israel, Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook (1865-1935) is recognized as being among the most important Jewish ...

Shema Yisrael, or the Shema, is the central affirmation of Judaism. The prayer expresses belief in the singularity of God, that is, in God's oneness and incomparability. Though this opening verse is ...