The 2005 URJ Biennial was a fascinating, overwhelming, and all-in-all good experience for me. Over the course of five days I attended panels and lectures and workshops; voted on issues of importance to the Reform movement; met a lot of new people; reconnected with a few old friends; had interesting and thought-provoking conversations about liturgy, peoplehood, the rabbinate, and more; worshipped in a few different ways; learned new melodies and savored old ones; bought a bunch of books.

I also blogged thousands of words about the experience. If you were there and want to relive the convention through my eyes, or if you weren't there and would like to read all about it, you're in luck: this post offers a convenient list of links to my seventeen previous Biennial posts. (This one is number eighteen, an auspicious place to stop...)

• The Biennial Begins!

• Are Dietary Laws Kosher for Reform Jews?

• Creating Meaningful Worship in Small Congregations

• Dinner With the San Antonians / Plenary: Ruth Messinger

• What Does It Mean to Be Good?

• Integrating Social Justice Throughout the Congregation

• Plenary: Robert Heller and Rabbi Michael Melchior

• Plenary: Robert Reich

• How Can Reform Jews Encounter God?

• Worship

• Plenary: Innocence Project and Rabbi Eugene Borowitz

• Plenary: Madeline Albright

• The Crisis in Darfur

• Plenary: Voting

• Rabbi Marmur on Heschel

• Shabbat

• Shabbat; Sermon; Kamenetz on Dreams

(You can also see my handful of Biennial photos here at flickr, if that interests you.) By the end of my Biennial experience I was pretty exhausted, definitely short on sleep, and glad that I chose to attend -- I learned a lot, I met some great people, and now my brain is chock-full of fascinating things to continue thinking about in the weeks and months to come.

Thanks for coming along for the ride. If you have thoughts or questions about any of these posts, please don't hesitate to respond, either here or via email!

Technorati tags: religion, Judaism, URJBiennial.