Reform Jews urged to make time to rest, contemplate

Reform Judaism in the 19th century rejected the Orthodox observance of the Sabbath as a 24-hour day of rest, but the demands of living in the 21st century are compelling reasons to once more embrace the Sabbath, a leading Reform rabbi said Saturday.

The message came as nearly 6,000 Jews, wearing yarmulkes and bluejeans, prayer shawls and Ugg boots, gathered for a five-day convention of the Union for Reform Judaism.

The Jewish denomination, which claims the most adherents of any in the United States today, is characterized by a belief that each generation seeks to bring contemporary expression to the Jewish religious tradition.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, in a Saturday morning sermon called on the community to once again adjust to the times.

“Reform Jews are considering Shabbat because they need Shabbat. In our 24/7 culture, the boundary between work time and leisure time has been swept away and the results are devastating. Do we really want to live in a world where we make love in half the time and cook every meal in the microwave?

“For our stressed-out, sleep-deprived families, the Torah’s mandate to rest looks relevant and sensible,” he added.

In 1869, Reform leaders introduced Friday night Sabbath, referred to as Shabbat in Hebrew, because many Jews worked on Saturday, when Orthodox denominations observe 24 hours of rest and religious contemplation.

Erev Shabbat, the Friday evening service, “literally saved Shabbat for the Jewish community,” Yoffie said. But work patterns have changed since then, and Reform Jews “more than ever before crave spiritual sustenance and meaningful ritual.”

Yoffie spoke at the biennial convention of the union, which is the central body of the Reform Movement in North America. The gathering, held at the San Diego Convention Center, attracted Jews from across the globe. It ends today.

The results of a survey of 12,000 American Reform Jews commissioned by the union and released Saturday appear to confirm Yoffie’s comments concerning Shabbat. Nearly half of those surveyed say they light Shabbat candles on Friday night and refrain from money-earning work. That number is even higher among converted and younger Jews. Though only 39% of all surveyed say they “try to make Shabbat a special day,” among converted Jews that number is 58% and among Jews under 40, it’s 53%.

Yoffie, like many people interviewed Saturday, did not call for a return to Jewish orthodoxy, which prohibits, for example, touching money and riding in cars on the Sabbath. Instead, what Yoffie suggests is to “stop running around long enough to see what God is doing.”

When the Shabbat service ended Saturday, boxes of cards with suggestions on how to make Shabbat more meaningful were handed out to a swarming group of people with outstretched hands.

One card read: “Not wearing a watch on Shabbat reminds me that Shabbat is an island in time.”

“I already do that!” said Rebecca Reice, 24, a rabbinical student from Los Angeles. “I’m a Millennial and I’m time-obsessed and I find that when I wear the watch I’m never present in the moment.”

Another card suggests an outing to a museum or an opera. Tina Gargotta, 24, the youth director at a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Mich., liked that one.

Gargotta does not expect all young Jews to dedicate their full Saturdays to Shabbat, but believes a happy medium is possible. “For some it may be half a day, for others only an hour,” she said. “Most young people I know are looking for some Shabbat experience while still maintaining their lifestyles.”

Paddy Meskin, 63, president of the South African chapter of Religions for Peace, sees Shabbat as a time to spend with her four grandchildren. “We’re not looking to go back into a state of withdrawal, just to find meaning again, together,” she said.

Yoffie also addressed a synagogue-mosque dialogue initiative in conjunction with the Islamic Society of North America. Ingrid Mattson, the society president and a speaker at the convention today, called the project a “trust-building exercise” in a time of “growing intolerance for diversity. The dialogue won’t be easy -- it never is -- but it will be meaningful.”

Yoffie told the Shabbat congregation: “We know as religious Americans that in this great country, we are stronger and safer when we transcend our fears and work together, rather than apart.”

The statement was marked by a hall full of applause.

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daniela.perdomo@latimes.com