The Jewish Experience

Holidays and Religious Traditions

A prayer book

The Opening of the Shema Prayer Explained

Professor Reuven Kimelman offers a line-by-line analysis of Judaism's most central prayer.

Read about The Shema

More Stories

Family at a bat mitzvah

"The introduction of bat mitzvah was a steppingstone to expanding roles for women in every part of the Jewish world," scholar Lisa Fishbayn Joffe argues.  

A 13th-century Byzantine image of the prophet Elijah from the Monastery of Saint John Lampadistis in Cyprus.

In a new book, scholar Daniel C. Matt '72 traces Elijah's transformation from a zealous prophet fired by God to the harbinger of the Jewish messiah. 

A man with a yarmulke in temple, leaning over to see the altar

Rabbi Eric Yoffie '69 argues that worship over a computer can never substitute for praying together in person.