Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie delievered this address during the Shabbat Morning Service of the 69th Biennial Convention. See the "Quick Links" for more information.

Shabbat shalom. Once again, I find myself overwhelmed by the power of this day. Here we are, united with men and women from many congregations but of one faith, bound together by our mutual sacred task. Our spirits soar when we join in the chorus of nearly 5,000 voices intoning the prayers of Shabbat.

There is a magical quality to Shabbat at Biennial. When we ask our delegates what was their most powerful experience during their five days here, the great majority say “Shabbat.” We treasure these twenty-four hours together, because, for once, we celebrate Shabbat as it is meant to be—a respite from errand running and clattering commerce, a day when we pay attention to the holy and the pull of Jewish time.

We also treasure the fiery enthusiasm of our Shabbat t’filot. Supporting one another in our prayers, we experience together an outpouring of soul, transporting us into the embrace of God. Of course, it was not always so. For most of our history, delegates came to the Biennial to debate and deliberate but not to pray. At our Biennials, as in many of our congregations, prayer was often boring and lifeless.

But then, more than a dozen years ago, we began a Movement-wide conversation about worship. Focusing our attention on Friday evening, we undertook to create services that were heartfelt, inspiring and community-building. And we succeeded. The glory of Reform Judaism has always been its ability to reinvent itself to meet new spiritual situations, and we did exactly that. In a mere handful of years, our Erev Shabbat services were radically transformed, changing from somber to joyful and from passive to engaging.

By Barbara Shuman

We’re out of the closet! Over 4000 Reform Jews observed a 24 hour Shabbat at the Biennial. What a wild and beautiful day we had – filled with music, prayer, learning and dance. Yes – we were dancing in the aisles, praying with our feet, celebrating with all our limbs. And we were challenged and charged by Eric Yoffie to commit to a fuller observance of Shabbat when we return to our homes. We go home with a full deck (52 cards – one for each week of the year) of suggestions for transforming Shabbat into a special day. The Shabbat initiative has the potential to transform each of us, our congregations, the Reform movement. It will be very interesting to hear reports of our experience at the 2009 Biennial in Toronto.

As the week progressed, the blog has been written later and later - a very typical occurrence for the Biennial. Friday was a magical day - starting with Rabbi Yoffie introducing outgoing Union Board Chair Robert Heller and Bob's stirring remarks about this tenure as Board Chair. Following on Bob's remarks, Rabbis Peter Rubinstein of Central Synagogue, New York and Josh Davidson of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester, Chappaqua, New York presented a Eisendrath Bearer of Light award to Michael J Fox who spoke eloquently about his battle with Parkinson's disease, his close connection to the Reform movement and his hopes for the future. The afternoon brought us a speech from Jeffrey Sachs, Diretor of the Earth Institute who was honored with the second Eisendrath award. Professor Sachs spoke eloquently and passionately about eradicating hunger and poverty and the Nothing But Nets Initiative to help eradicate malaria in third world countries. His presentation was riveting!

Listen into a live recording from the stage of the Shabbat Song Session from San Diego. Press the play button to hear the energy and feel the excitement of the evening.

As we prepare for our Shabbat here in San Diego the Biennial Blog spoke with two rabbis about their personal Shabbat routines and how they make the Sabbath Day holy. Click on the play button below to listen in.

By Barbara Shuman

Just a quick note about a wonderful session I attended this morning. Sam Joseph shared his vision of leadership - that leaders should be connectors, not controllers, heroes, or bosses. The job of leaders is to create space for congregants to talk about and act upon what really matters to them, not just on jobs that need to be done. We need to postpone problem solving and talk about possibilities for the future, to envision and invent a better reality, to invite people to give voice to dissent (rather than boring them with reports about what has already happened).

Thanks to Randee Friedman, Biennial participant and blog reader, we are able to track Biennial Jane once again, just in time for Shabbat. On a night where Biennial Jane will be responsible for more than 4,500 meals, we are sure to see a record number of miles trekked here in the San Diego Convention Center.

Shabbat is almost here and the excitement is building. The buzz I keep hearing is that this Biennial is terrific. The workshop sessions have been well attended and well received, the plenary sessions have gotten rave reviews, especially last night's program on Building Community in the 21st Century. The Women's Torah Commentary was introduced to the Biennial Thursday morning and the line to purchase copies at the URJ Bookstore was very long! Clearly this volume is destined to be a tremendous success.

Music is everywhere at the Biennial, from plenary sessions to the URJ Books and Music Stage, our Shabbat worship to late night gatherings. It takes a lot of planning to be sure that the melodies and music that is prepared for the convention’s worship services is new and fresh, and much of that responsibility falls to Cantor Alane Katzew, director of Music Programming at the Union. Click on the play button to listen to the musical conversation.