Yoel Kahn, Ph.D., is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth El of Berkeley. Ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1985, he received his Ph.D. at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. His book on the history of Jewish liturgy, The Three Blessings: Boundaries, Censorship  and Identity in Jewish Liturgy, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011.