Episode 5
How does prayer connect us to one another when we’re divided by belief, distance, or time?
In this final episode of Thoughts & Prayers, host Jessica Fisher explores how Jewish prayer can both strengthen and strain our sense of peoplehood. From the universal call of the shofar to the discomfort of praying beside those we disagree with, this episode asks what it means to belong to a people who do not always see or believe the same way. Alongside Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield, Yehuda Kurtzer, Yael Splansky, and Akiva Mattenson, we trace how the sounds, words, and silences of prayer continue to bind Jews across time, space, and difference.
Sources referenced in this episode include:
Vayikra Rabbah 20:2 with Connections
Exodus 19:16 with Connections
Pri Etz Chaim, Gate of the World of Action 1:17 with Connections
Machzor Yom Kippur Ashkenaz, Kol Nidrei 6 with Connections
Devarim Rabbah , Parashat Va’Ethanan (Bereshit Rabbah 98)
Exodus Rabbah Shemot Rabbah 21:4
A transcript for this episode is available below
JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST FOR MORE HARTMAN IDEAS
Thoughts & Prayers is a new limited podcast series from the Shalom Hartman Institute that explores the tensions, questions, and contradictions at the heart of Jewish prayer today. Hosted by Jessica Fisher, each episode weaves together personal stories, classical texts, and conversations with leading rabbis, scholars, and educators to ask what prayer can still mean — and why it matters.
