Why Robby said the Shema on ‘The Pitt’
In a moment of crisis, the agnostic Jewish doctor declared faith in God
Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) found himself saying the Shema in a low moment. Photo by Warrick Page/Max
By PJ Grisar April 4, 2025
This article contains spoilers for episode 13 and 14 of The Pitt.
In the 15th hour of a shift from hell, Dr Robby went missing.
When a medical student found him, in a heap in the pediatric room, he was crying. Under his breath, Robby said “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.”
Played by Noah Wyle, Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch has, throughout Max’s hit medical show The Pitt, invoked concepts from different cultures, including a Hawaiian ritual for saying goodbye to loved ones. In one episode, speaking to his Christian head nurse, Dana, he corrects her attribution of “physician heal thyself” (Luke, not Shakespeare) but adds the disclaimer “I’m Jewish, it’s not my book.”
But in his toughest moment, after failing to rescue the girlfriend of a boy who is, effectively, his stepson, he returned to the central prayer of Judaism, clutching his Magen David necklace.
“It’s called the Shema prayer,” Robby explains at the end of the episode to Whitaker, the student doctor who found him. “It’s a declaration of faith in God.”
At last, we get more backstory. Robby lived with his grandmother when he was young, and they would recite it every morning.
Whitaker responds with words from Isaiah. “Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall, but those who hold hope in the Lord will renew their strength and soar on wings like eagles.”
Robby shrugs. “I don’t know if I actually believe in God, especially on days like today.”
That Robby affirmed the oneness of God, while agnostic, speaks to the comfort of the words and his core Jewish identity. It also tells us that he, like nearly every Jewish doctor, almost certainly received a framed copy of Maimonides’ Physician’s Prayer as a med school graduation gift.
That prayer reads, in part: “I am now ready to devote myself to the duties of my profession, Help me, Almighty God, in this great work to do good to men, for without Thy help nothing I do will succeed.”
In The Pitt, they need all the help they can get.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
