As I circled through reform then conservative then orthodox and now just simple confusion, I found it strange that Lag B'Omer and Shavuous get so little press in the non orthdox world. Between bonfires and partying outside to staying up all night shmoozing, I can't understand why these holidays are ignored.

Check out http://israelbeat.blogspot.com/ for some music reporting from Meron.

Okay, now I want to know more about your journey through the floavors of Jewish practice! Can you tell us more about the how/why of your taste-and-compare experience?

Enquiring minds want to know!

That wouldn't fit in a comment. The short version is I started off reform; tried conservative when I started looking for more depth; realized that what I liked about conservative judaism was what the Rabbis/JTS said and did, not what many conservative jews did; becamce orthodox slowly, but with continuing increase in strict observance (real intense--shomer mitzvos, kid in right wing school, etc); then learned too much for my own good and started doubting 20th century ortodoxy (ie--current theology and practice, not doubting Mesorah, Rambam, etc); then child had serious illness and I got more confused......Once I figure it out I'll write a book.

I'd read that book!

I'm so sorry to hear about the illness...

xoL http://jewishyirishy.com

1) I love Shavuot! It's true that I never did anything for it in my Conservative shul growing up -- until I was in 10th grade and we had Confirmation (a term I dislike intensely: if we insist on having it, can't we give it a good Hebrew name instead of sounding like Catholics?[**]) on Shavuot, which is probably the most press it usually gets in the Reform & Conservative synagogue life-cycle -- but all of my celebrations of it in the past 10 years have been in non-Orthodox environments. And they've been pretty great!

The Shefa Shavuot Reflections put together last year might be of interest -- my contribution also has a nice recipe for galaktopita zarka, baked cream custard (from the Cookbook of the Jews of Greece).

I've also counted the omer each of those past 10 years, but only done anything cool for Lag B'Omer twice:

1) A Masorti (Conservative) Lag B'Omer retreat in the Lake District of England with folks from our Oxford Masorti group & those from Leeds Masorti. That's the only time I've learned any Lag B'Omer songs, though they were pretty weak ("Esh, esh" and "Hayom Lag B'Omer"): teaching me the round "Black socks" has given a more lasting addition to my repertoire...*

2) when we dropped by to visit my frummy Cleveland cousins & their 5 kids on our way home from Michigan -- we had the good fortune to be joining them on the 33rd day of the omer, so we got to enjoy a fabulous cookout in a local park with folks from one of the kids' schools. (Mmmmm, delicious kosher hamburgers!).

Maybe I'll be more motivated to do Lag B'Omer stuff when I have kids who want to toast marshmallows, etc...

2) Hey, Anonymous: I just finished reading Rabbi Naomi Levy's book To Begin Again -- I wonder if you would find it, and what it has to say about God and Judaism, to be helpful or interesting in your current state of confusion.

But being confused--or at least not satified with easy institutional answers--isn't such a bad thing...

*P.S. Also inspiring a parody about phylacteries:

Black box, with straps are tefillin,

Lubavitchers ask you to put on a set,

Someday, I'm going to get me some--

So far, like Rosenzweig, I say not yet,

not yet, not yet...

(This is no longer exactly true...though I'd still be interested in getting a pair written by the soferet who's the maker of Tefillin Barbie...)

**P.P.S. A friend tells me that one local shul calls confirmation "Kabbalat Torah" -- which I like much better, find totally appropriate for the setting of the ceremony on Shavuot, and hope that more shuls adopt! 

BeccaB,

I'm curious what you thought of the book To Begin Again. Is it similar to Harold Kushner's book Why do bad things happen? I didn't find Kushner's book helpful to me because of his somewhat limited view of G-d (at least as I read Kushner). If you are interested in reading in this area, I thought Rabbi Blech's book was better (for me, I'm sure others would disagree). See http://www.benjaminblech.com/

Dear Anon,

Thanks for the references. A friend who is dealing with serious illness just borrowed To Begin Again -- she saw it on my coffee table during shabbes and asked "is this any good?" I said that yeah, I thought it was, and that she was welcome to take it. I haven't read Kushner (or Blech, for that matter), but from what I do know I think that what Rabbi Levy has to say is different in content (and has a view of God that you wouldn't find "limited" in the same way, though you might or might not agree with it 100%: it fits pretty well with my own views) as well as in concept or emphasis. Each chapter ends with a prayer (some of which seem to me in the tradition of kavvanot) -- these prayers were so meaningful to so many readers that they became the basis for her next book, Talking to God (which I haven't read). If you do read her book, let me know what you think. (And if I read Blech I'll do the same!)

I had the pleasure of learning and davening with Rabbi Levy at the USCJ Seaboard Convention in October: I think what she's doing with Nashuva in L.A. sounds wonderful (I'd love to check it out someday, even if it's not the kind of davening I usually do or would necessarily want to do all the time)--and in dealing with the Boomerang effect points out usefully that innovative Judaism isn't just for GenX.