Reform Jews called back to the Sabbath - Updated
Updated 3:28 PM: Oops! I completely forgot that AviShalom did a post on this very topic last month called “Taming the B’nai Mitzvah beast and making Shabbat morning more meaningful to our community“. You might want to check it out as well, especially if this post was of interest!
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I stumbled across the following The National Catholic Reporter story online earlier today.
Jews called back to Sabbath
SAN DIEGO — The leader of Reform Jews is spearheading a campaign for greater observance of a 24-hour Sabbath, including increased attendance at Saturday morning worship.
“In our 24/7 culture, the boundary between work time and leisure time has been swept away, and the results are devastating,” said Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, speaking at the biennial convention of the Union for Reform Judaism last month.
“Do we really want to live in a world where we make love in half the time and cook every meal in the microwave?”
Yoffie said “stressed-out, sleep-deprived families” can benefit from abstaining from wage-earning work and reflecting on life. “We are asked to stop running around long enough to see what God is doing,” he said.
Yoffie’s proposal includes recommendations that congregations set up task forces to study their own Shabbat morning service and those of other congregations, and then suggest how to enhance their services. Since 1869, Reform Jews have observed a Shabbat Eve service on Friday nights.
Shabbos observance (or lack there of, within the Reform Movement) is one of the main reasons I ended up moving away from Reform and into the Conservative Movement, both in terms of theology and praxis. Having said that, as an ex-pat Reform convert I see this as welcome news and am looking forward to watching how this new push unfolds. However based on the above (which in all fairness my be an incomplete picture of what, Rabbi Yoffie said or what he maybe planning, on this front) I hope they put more into their Shabbos revitalization than just programs for getting people into shul on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings. Because after all, a campaign for greater observance of a 24-hour Sabbath” certainly needs to include more than just, shul based prayer services, which account for less than, a quarter of that 24 hours. The Sabbath IMHO is much more about doing out-of-the-shul Judaism and therefor needs to include strategies and infrastructure for promoting greater home observance, which plays (again IMHO) an extremely important role in Shabbos observance.
Anyhow, like I said above, maybe other aspects of his plan were overlooked by the article. If that’s the case I would like to know more about them. I am also curious to know what our “Refornnick” contributors and readers think of this new campaign?
If you do reform and you read this please feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on the subject. I for one am interested in reading what you have to say!
I’m hoping to write...
1) http://www .jewber...
As someone bumping up her attendance to the Conservative shul, I have a few things to say. If they want more people to show up for Saturday morning services, perhaps they should start with looking at the Kabbalat Shabbat service on Friday nights. Just about every service I’ve ever been to at a Reform shul tends to drag on. Not out of a boosted level of content or engagement, but simply out of dragging. I’m not sure what it is, but in my experiences the sermons get longer and the service gets longer. I appreciate the Shabbat service, and I don’t think it should be sped through, but I just feel like there is this lag on the Reform service.
I’ll admit I do not go to Saturday morning services. I’m a Friday-night kind of gal, and being a night owl makes it difficult to haul myself out of bed in the morning. I did — for quite some time — attend the morning services at my Reform shul back home, and there was never minyan. We’d have *maybe* five people there. It was difficult and often ended up being incredibly casual. I didn’t mind this, but it just felt like “What are we doing here?”
I think the evaluation is a good start. But there are always taskforces and it seems like nothing ever gets done.
I agree with you, too, that education of the congregation is key. I don’t think people *know* exactly what Shabbat means beyond going to shul and lighting some candles and that maybe you aren’t supposed to do lots of stuff on Shabbat. But in America — where many Jews sacrificed Shabbat for the sake of business and ventures, it’s difficult for people to really experience it in the Reform movement. This is why there are some Reform shuls that have morning service on Sundays.
Anyhow. That’s my yabbering. I’ll admit I’m not perfect, but I can say that in my recent experience in the Conservative shul compared to years in the Reform, it’s just different. The people are different, the rabbis are different, the mood is different. I only hope that the Reform movement can find a way to bring such a mood into their movement.
I am a big fan of the Saturday services at the Conservative shul I attend in Chicago, not only for the choices I get (main sanctuary or very well-attended minyan), but also for the frequent guest speakers in the afternoon, and the wonderful havdallah services at Shabbos end. Chavi, if this is the same shul you attend, welcome aboard.
Kol tuv,
Sam
As a Reform Jew who attends services both Friday night and Saturday morning (and who also was in attendance at the Biennial) I was very interested to hear Rabbi Yoffie’s sermon (which can be read here: http://urj.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=17449).
I think that what Yoffie is talking about, and based on the workshops at the Biennial developed around this theme, is not just going to services at temple, but doing Shabbat at home with your family or on your own. I think there is a realization that if we want Reform Jews to connect with Shabbat it needs to not just be in the synagogue; it needs to be in the home and not feel like a daunting task that you are overwhelmed by. I think the idea is to start small, each week doing something else that makes Shabbat special. And while Shabbat observance is the goal, I don’t believe they are necessarily pushing it in the traditional sense where you don’t turn on lights, don’t drive, etc. But, making it a time that you truly do set apart from the rest of the week in some way.
I think we could get into trouble here by saying “Reform Jews don’t know how to celebrate Shabbat.” We may do things differently, but I believe we still do it Jewishly, and we are making an effort to increase our Shabbat observance, be it through traditional or nontraditional means. There seems to be a general looking down upon the Reform movement and it really bothers me. I understand people needing to connect with a movement that is right for them, but to basically say that Reform doesn’t do it right is offensive. Serious Reform Jews make the effort to educate themselves and to strive for observance that is right for them and right for their relationship with God.
Personally, I feel like my small Reform temple that rarely gets a minyan on a Saturday morning does Shabbat better than the large Conservative shul in town that I’ve attended from time to time. I can’t tell you how distracting and un-prayerful a Shabbat morning service is at that shul–everyone comes in late, everyone talks through the entire service, there just was no sense of a praying community. My temple might be small but each person who comes Saturday morning does so because they truly want to be there and to pray.
Don’t write off all Reform Jews, all Reform temples, and the Reform movement as people who do not understand Shabbat or don’t have the right “mood.” For those of you who began in the Reform movement and jumped to Conservative or Orthodox, did you ever think that instead of just abandoning Reform you could stay and help revitalize Shabbat? Did you ever think that your energy for Judaism and Shabbat and observance could inspire those around you? Did you ever try to fix the “mood” at your temple? Did you ever talk to the rabbi about it? Or did you just leave?
Samuel,
You should let me know where you go. I imagine there’s a million Conservative shuls in Chicago. I just happen to live very close to one in the city
Cheers,
Chavi
Anshe Emet!
ChavyJo:
I agree with you regarding your task force comment. As for you’re recent move to attending services at a Conservative sul, trust me with a little time you will start to notice an assortment of irritants there as well. Of course, that’s if you are anything like me! I guess it all just boils down to institution’s being imperfect and people being cranky (and not to mention imperfect themselves.
Sam:
It sounds like your Shul is well set up for a full (satur)day of attendance should one be so inclined. Tamara’s and my shul does not seem to have anything (like regular Torah study or guest speakers) between morning services and the afternoon services which don’t start (at least currently) until after 4:30 pm. There is a study group between Ma’ariv and Havdallah but like Isaid nothing for hours before that. This possesses a bit of a problem for people like Tamara and I who have to schlep half way across LA to get to shul. I’m not so in to driving back and forth several times on Shabbos. It just kills the oneg, if you know what I mean, as does twirling our thumbs for a few hours waiting for the afternoon services to start. I’m willing to own that the responsibility is as much on us to find a solution, as it is on the shul or community and we are indeed working on it! But it sounds like what your shul does, would solve the problem flat out for us.
Thanks for sharing.
Jen:
Thanks for sharing your take, it is truly appreciated! You bring up some great points and I think I will try to address some of them in a proper post in the next few days or so. However, hopefully others will weigh in before that, and share their thoughts here in the comments section. I know Tamara has some half decent reasons, as does Yair. On the other side I bet AviShalom has a few good reasons for sticking around the Reform movement and not going the Conservative rout. Maybe if, we are lucky they will share some of them with us.
Anshe Emet, eh? Well then. Perhaps I’ll see you around.
-Chavi
I agree with you wholeheartedly Jenny, the Reform does seem to get a lot of unwarranted criticism. Simply because they allow you to choose which traditions (forgive me if this is the wrong word) you will follow does not mean that they aren’t serious Jews. Every person is different, and so is every congregation. This morning I was reading an interfaith forum where a Muslim woman was pointing out that whether a woman wears a scarf has nothing to do with how ‘good’ of a Muslim she is.
For the past year I’ve been attending different friday night services in the SF Bay Area, and my favorite one so far is at a Reform synagogue. There’s usually about 40 people there at least, most of the service is beautiful music, and the sermons are enriching. The Rabbi uses a great blend of stories, humor and facts. The Conservative services I’ve been to were mostly in Hebrew (which I unfortunately don’t know yet) but felt less stimulating, to me personally. The friend I attended with found the solemnity exactly she needed after a long week. In hindsight, what I enjoy about the Reform services is that I feel jubilant and refreshed afterward, and usually end up dancing for several hours afterward.
I am in the beginning of ‘officially’ converting (I’m talking to the Rabbi at the Reform synagogue tonight) so I’m probably not doing much ‘the kosher way’. But I try to observe Shabbat by doing things that I can’t do on work days; I do things alone (as opposed to my busy office with non-stop socializing) I do art projects, watch movies and read books. On a more every day note; I don’t follow Kashrut because I have severe food allergies, and I already can’t eat most foods available in US. I read books on Judaism every day along with the Tanakh (Torah but also Kethuvim usually, just can’t get enough of those Psalms).
I’m so glad I found this interesting site, I’m going to rss it so I can keep up with these interesting discussions!
- ACB
Rabbi Yoffe’s sermon did indeed discuss a lot of things aside from services, and they have created a pack of cards with a suggestion for observance for each week. It is very clever, in that it encourages people who might not have thought about it before to draw a card from the deck and add something from the suggestions each week, thereby learning more about what the potentials for observance are and discovering what works for them.
The URJ Shabbat website has a lot more on this (linked in my post, which Avi kindly added a link to at the top of this one).
ACB: Hope you come back to this article/page and
might share which Reform temple you attend on Friday
night, as I also am in the Bay Area and seek a Friday
night service
that will leave me feeling as exhilerated as you! Thanks1