“Go get your slingshots boys ” called my husband Gabriel to our sons as he tucked his shotgun under his arm. It was deer season and a couple of good does would take us through the lean winter months. He headed out to the woods our boys trotting after him. Branches cracking underfoot they followed him through the rich Georgian woodland breathing in the fresh green scent of the forest. BeforeGabe taught them how to follow a deer’s trail he took a slingshot in hand fit a small pebble inside and pulled. “See boys the further back you pull the higher the stone flies.” Years later we learned that Rebbe Nachman of Breslov uses a slingshot as a parable for spiritual growth: the Jewish soul is pulled downward the string taut tension at its height. And then in a second’s release the stone — or the soul — flies upward. It’s propelled forward to places it could never have reached were it not brought so low. When I heard that I began to understand the strange highs and lows of our lives as we journeyed to Jewishness.