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prayer

Christian Orthodox pilgrims hold up candles during the Holy Fire ceremony, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
August 26, 2026, 1:43 pm
Spending the night behind the locked doors of the Holy Sepulchre
With daytime crowds gone, pilgrims and clergy pray through the night at the traditional sites of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection
By GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO
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Jewish worshippers pray at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City, during the Birkat Kohanim priestly blessing during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, October 20, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
December 15, 2025, 10:45 am
Across Time & Space
From the universal call of the shofar to the discomfort of praying beside those we disagree with, what does it mean to be a people who do not always see or believe the same way?
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Wildflowers at the Dead Sea. (Avner Rinot, Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel)
December 7, 2025, 1:46 pm
The Land of Israel is a Prayer
What happens when the Israel of our prayers looks different from the Israel of our headlines? How can prayer help us glimpse the Jerusalem of our dreams within the Israel of today?
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Rabbi Ari Berman prays during the 60th Presidential Inauguration at the US Capitol in Washington, January 20, 2025. (AP Photo/ Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
November 26, 2025, 6:15 pm
When Prayer Meets Politics
Host Jessica Fisher examines how Jewish prayer and American politics intertwine, from the synagogue’s prayer for the government to benedictions on the national stage.
PROMOTED CONTENT
Congregants praying at the Kadoorie Synagogue in Porto, Portugal, May 2014. (Courtesy of the Jewish community of Porto/JTA)
November 20, 2025, 11:15 pm
Between Me and We
How do we balance our individual spiritual needs with our responsibilities to community? Our host Jessica Fisher explores the tension between private devotion and communal obligation.
PROMOTED CONTENT
Jews praying for forgiveness (Selichot), at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, early on October 1, 2025, on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
November 17, 2025, 1:04 am
Does Prayer Work?
In this first episode of Thoughts & Prayers, host Jessica Fisher explores one of the oldest and most unsettling questions in Jewish life: Does prayer work?
People walk at the Mahaneh Yehudah Market in Jerusalem, during Israel's 76th Independence Day on May 13, 2024. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)
April 30, 2025, 5:08 pm
As Israel shifts from sorrow to joy, rabbinic group offers new prayer for grieving nation
Drafted by Tzohar, the prayer aims to help the public navigate the painful transition from Memorial Day to Independence Day amid ongoing trauma and hostage crisis
By Rossella Tercatin
Craig Berko, director of membership at Temple Beth Sholom, prepares to hand out prayer books during a Shabbat service, September 27, 2024, in Miami Beach, Florida. (AP/Wilfredo Lee)
February 28, 2025, 11:18 am
Most American Jews say they rarely or never pray, up 29% from a decade ago
Pew poll finds percentage of Jews who say they don’t pray – 58% – is far higher than among those who identify as Muslims, Christians; 31% of US Jews say they lean Republican
By PHILISSA CRAMER
Zibby Books publisher Zibby Owen, third from left, front row, with some of the contributors to 'On Being Jewish Now,' an anthology that came out in October 2024, at Zibby's Book Shop, Santa Monica, California (Courtesy Innis Casey Photography)
December 8, 2024, 9:15 am
As Jews continue to digest October 7, anthologies offer a buffet of food for thought
Female-powered collections explore life in the US and antisemitism, provide succor and hope with prayers and poems, and retell the stories of heroic Jewish women
By Jessica Steinberg
Rabbi Daniel De'ei, who organizes and financially supports round-the-clock Torah studies at Rachel's Tomb, Bethlehem, November 11, 2024. (Mati Wagner/Times of Israel)
November 12, 2024, 4:22 pm
Haredim flock to Rachel’s Tomb to pray for the IDF – and for God not to make them enlist
On the anniversary of the matriarch’s death, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community sees no contradiction in asking her to protect the soldiers while protecting Haredim from serving
By Mati Wagner
Secular and Orthodox activists clash after the religious Rosh Yehudi group sets up a gender divider made of Israeli flags in defiance of a municipality decision at a public prayer service in Dizengoff Square, Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur, September 24, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90)
October 10, 2024, 2:16 pm
Despite winning court battle, group cancels outdoor Yom Kippur prayers in Tel Aviv
Citing concern of saboteurs disrupting gender-separated services even after court confirmed their legality, Rosh Yehudi says they’ll be held inside to keep the peace
By Mati Wagner
Israelis hold a gender-separated protest prayer event in Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Square, organized after the municipality rejected a request for gender-segregated prayers there during the upcoming Yom Kippur, in Tel Aviv, August 8, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
August 9, 2024, 8:00 am
Protest service held in Tel Aviv after city rejects gender-segregated public prayer
Hundreds join gender-separated Dizengoff Square event, organized after request for segregated public Yom Kippur service in the square was rejected by municipality as discriminatory
By Noam Lehmann and ToI Staff
Hostage families attend a ceremony of writing a Torah scroll at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron, in northern Israel on March 10, 2024 (Photo by David Cohen/Flash90)
July 9, 2024, 10:45 am
Parents of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin launch ‘Week of Goodness’
Family aims to increase kindness, good deeds and generosity in the world in order to help bring about the redemption of 116 remaining October 7 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza
By Jessica Steinberg
Transportation Minister Miri Regev speaks to the media after a court hearing at the Magistrate's Court in Tel Aviv, January 31, 2024 (Flash90)
January 31, 2024, 3:23 pm
Judge asks Tel Aviv’s mayor to drop ‘time wasting’ libel lawsuit over public prayer
Ron Huldai is suing Transportation Minister Regev for saying he prevented people from putting on tefillin in the street
By Canaan Lidor
A protester tackling Rabbi Leo Dee as he prays at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 5, 2023. (Video screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
October 5, 2023, 1:34 pm
Tel Aviv officials, activists disrupt protest prayer led by terror-bereaved rabbi
Municipal workers dismantle sex-segregation barrier placed in Dizengoff Square by Rabbi Leo Dee and other worshipers in response to confrontations over the divider on Yom Kippur
By Canaan Lidor
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