No Jewish prayer is more central to our liturgy than the Shema, the quintessential statement of faith that reminds us of the covenant we share with God. Each morning and each evening, when we lay down and when we rise, in the waters of the mikvah as one converts, at the end of the day and on the deathbed, we pray the words of the Shema asserting God’s uniqueness and affirming the relationship that exists between God and the Jewish people.