There are moments when history seems to stop; when centuries of faith, suffering and endurance collapse into a single gesture. This week, one such moment arrived in Israel amid an extraordinary ...

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is one.” These words are the supreme testimony of Jewish faith. Each word is worthy of careful study, but it is the first – the verb Shema – that ...

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.

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 ...

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 ...