🏹 Aiming with Awe: Judaism as a Practice

How archery is like practicing Judaism, requiring patience and imperfection.

An Update from Israel

Hi friends,

Crazy to think just a week ago, I wrote that Israel was hakol tov. That was before the Iranian missiles came in and we spent sleepless nights running to bomb shelters.

I’m still here - not sure when I’m leaving - and I’m safe and well cared for. Throughout Israel, there has been death, destruction, and displacement, but we keep our heads held high. We may be afraid to sleep at night, but we entertain those in the shelter. We may not know when we’re going home, so we go to the beach and get our nails done at the one salon that’s open. That’s life! This Shabbos, I’m going to a bar mitzvah. It’s all about the simchas.

I cried when I took this picture. This was from my last night in my hotel’s shelter in TLV. I’ve bonded with these people during scary times and I will never forget them.

I was supposed to go home on the 22nd which is no longer happening, so I signed up for a one-week ulpan program in the south, where I will learn Hebrew, work my job from there, and make my childhood dream of living on a kibbutz come true. We have a saying here in Israel: When life gives you missiles, learn Hebrew! After that, I will try to get a flight home that won’t break the bank.

Will certainly Drop about my experience in depth, but for now, follow my adventures on Instagram at @theshabbatdrop, and enjoy a Jewish piece for Pride Month written by someone I met at a storytelling event run by Central Synagogue (the same one where I met our Taiwanese friend, Celeste!).

Stay safe and proud,
Miranda

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The following was written by Arden Donohue.

I was on my way home after visiting my mom, sitting on a dark bus at night, watching sermons on my phone as research for a writing project. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl’s Yom Kippur sermon titled, “Inviting God Back to the Garden” popped up on YouTube. She talked about how people have trouble feeling awe because they don’t perceive a God that transcends the universe in the big and small moments of life.

She described looking up at the starry night sky as a little girl at her home in Takoma, Washington and feeling awe in being a part of something larger than herself because she had realized that it was the same sky that spread over her previous home in Korea. I wasn’t yet a Jew, but this sense of awe in the small moments that conspire for us was the closest thing I had ever heard to my own theology. It felt like coming home, like some divine alignment was taking place. The light coming from my phone illuminated the path I was meant to take.

"I am truly living Jewishly when I’m simply living Jewishly, because Judaism isn’t a finite checklist, but a practice." -Arden Donohue

​Early on in my Jewish life after my conversion, I was impatient to move towards my destination. I wanted to live as Jewishly as possible in a Reform way, going to communal Passover seders and an adult Jewish summer camp where I first tried archery. I quickly fell in love with it, the mindful and active aspects that made it meditation in motion.

​Once, in an archery competition, I had been shooting too quickly in order to conserve my energy, but that meant that I was also missing my targets more than usual. My skill level was plateauing because I had accepted that progress was slow. But at that moment, an experienced archer I respect called out: “If you spend longer aiming, you’ll miss less.” Obviously! But I hadn’t been thinking that way because I was trying to avoid target panic, stressing out from over-aiming.

I gave his advice a try. I spent more time aligning my scope with the target and positioned my second sight ring over it.

​Despite the fact that I’m usually more tired in the second half of a competition, my score kept getting higher, and to my surprise, I wasn’t getting tired either. By being patient and spending time with the practice, I could actually be in better alignment.

I feel the same way about Judaism. Both Judaism and archery aren’t about perfection, but improvement and practice. I once heard an archer say, “It’s not the quality of equipment that helps, but simply shooting more arrows.” For us, it’s not about going to the grandest events, or having the most beautiful tallit. It’s about showing up when the opportunity presents itself and maybe even creating it ourselves.

I am truly living Jewishly when I’m simply living Jewishly because Judaism isn’t a finite checklist, but a practice. One that has made me more patient. Patient enough to sit still for six hours while someone moves a needle in my arm or wait that last hour of Yom Kippur before the break fast.

​Combining my two loves, I recently designed and got an archery tattoo that includes a citation from the Book of Isaiah. Fittingly, the verses read, “I was hidden in the shadow of God’s hand, so that I was like a polished arrow concealed in God’s quiver.”

I like the metaphor of God having a target that She sends me towards on a straight path to my destination. It’s the only way I’m ever straight.