Sukkot

Sukkot is about wandering. It commemorates the Bibical account of the Israelites wandering 40 years in the desert. It's also a harvest festival. The Torah commands Jews to live in temporary huts, or booths (Sukkahs) to commemorate the wandering of our ancestors. So many people build these huts.
I was invited to a party in which someone cleverly built one around her deck. We brought vegetables and other harvest goodies to decorate the sukkah. We said the Shabbat Prayers and performed the rituals of Sukkot in this small, intimate Sukkah in the middle of Madison. I was with people I did not know well, but we were together, being Jewish, remembering those before us who wandered and lived off the land. But how is that relevent today?

I am personally not physically wandering. I have a nice apartment and a good job. I have wonderful friends. I've even got the beginnings of a romance. Spiritually, however, I am very much wandering.

I've explored Madison's Jewish options, and for Yom Kippur, I settled on the Reform service as that is what I've grown up with. But, even with the comfortable prayer book, service style, and some common ideals, I have issues. I don't like singing in English. It seems church-like to me. I dislike the way one or two people were using cell phones IN the synagogue on Yom Kippur. I imagine I wasn't the only one who disapproved. These are elements of Reform that people often criticize. It isn't always fair or representative, but it happens. What of that?
Others at the Sukkot party had similar complaints about their synagogues. "No one likes that Rabbi...". "This service is a bit weird..." "Young people just don't go there". They were questioning what we grew up with, and trying to find out where they've grown to.
A few blogs do the same. Tamara Eden's blogs are often about her search for spiritual belonging. Esther Kustanowitz's My Urban Kvetch and Jdater's anonymous also occasionally delve into questions of belonging and wandering, particularly as they relate to being single in New York City. She also talks about Madonna a lot, but that is definitely part of the fun.

Why all of this restlessness? I suppose it's natural for 20 and 30 somethings to question and seek. If you are single, in particular, you might not feel the need to affiliate with one synagogue. You can float and look for an environment your are comfortable with. We also wander a lot physically. We might be students, or working at temporary jobs, or just finding ourselves.
So as we wander, we remember our ancestors who had no home. They didn't have jobs, or nice apartments, or speed dating, or someone's good-looking third cousin that you really should meet. They just had a faith and a belief. That belief took them out of Egypt and into the wildnerness to seek who they are and what they might become as a people; It's not so different from us, after all....