Editorial note: Spoilers ahead for “The Pitt.”
It’s no secret that Dr. Robby is having a hellish day in “The Pitt.” As if it wasn’t enough that the Jewish doctor had to work on the fourth anniversary of the death of his mentor (in this very hospital), he’s also had to contend with anti-vax patients, dismissing a fellow doctor for stealing drugs, a stolen ambulance, a troubled teen boy and multiple patient deaths.
When things seem like they couldn’t possibly get any worse, an active shooter kills and injures multiple people at a local music festival that Robby’s surrogate son and his girlfriend Leah are attending. As casualties flood the Pitt, Robby can’t get ahold of Jake — until he arrives with Leah, who is in critical condition. Despite his best efforts and heroic measures, Robby can’t save Leah, prompting him to snap. Dr. Robby has a breakdown, curling up into the fetal position in the pediatric room which has grimly been turned into a makeshift morgue. He’s exhausted, despairing, grieving and can’t change the fact that he can’t save everyone.
So the Jewish doctor does the only thing he can do: He recites the Shema.
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Near the beginning of the penultimate episode of the first season, Dr. Whitaker finds Dr. Robby still in the morgue, clutching his Star of David, crying and covering his eyes, repeating the Shema over and over again. It’s a powerful moment. Noah Wyle, the actor behind Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, has previously spoken about how his own Russian Jewish ancestry influenced the decision to make Dr. Robby Jewish. But until this moment, viewers haven’t seen how important Robby’s Jewishness is to him. In a moment of crisis, Robby turns to the most important prayer in all Jewish liturgy. In exchange for his own powerlessness, he repeats the Hebrew words which declare God’s singularity, and evidently finds comfort in that.
Almost as quickly as the moment begins, it ends. Dr. Whitaker sits beside Robby, telling him that the team needs him, and then helps Robby to his feet. In turn, Robby places his Star of David under his blood-covered smock and dries his eyes. He then returns out into the chaos of the hospital to continue working.
“We’ve sort of set up that he is Jewish, he was raised in a Jewish household, and he doesn’t really talk to God anymore. That’s not a conversation that’s present in his life,” Noah Wyle said in a conversation with Esquire, published yesterday. “The only thing that he can think of to do is to recite a very simple and basic prayer.”
“And that’s when Whitaker finds him — somebody who’s on the opposite end of the professional spectrum,” Wyle continued. “Different faith, different age. Watching those two guys try and negotiate this moment that was private and is now public was a really interesting and fun thing to play.”
For a show that has been hailed as accurate by the medical community, it’s unsurprising that “The Pitt” and Noah Wyle would be able to convey Jewishness with authenticity. It’s a powerful, meaningful moment of television.
