It was always the old men
who read from the Torah.
Gathered round the dark wooden bima,
they would stand in tight circles
near the sacred scrolls,
their white beards tucked
carefully out of the way,
their mumbled Hebrew ascending.
 
And later there were the young women.
new or aspiring rabbis,
twenty year old girls with smooth faces
and bright eyes,
holding pointer with shaking hands
while chanting flowing Hebrew
in bold imitation of the men.
 
But this morning we listened to Rabbi Shoshanah
her white hair clasped neatly
at the nape of her neck,
forehead furrowed in deep concentration,
as she chanted the ancient Hebrew words.
Through lips surrounded with deep laugh lines,
she sang impromptu translations,
interpretations that opened
the ancient text.
 
And all the while
our youngest listener,
five year old Lila,
paid rapt attention,
not knowing that
this reading was the result
of an ongoing revolution.

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