For years I have struggled with reading from the Torah scroll. It was a skill that I seemed to be unable to master. Periodically, I would get called upon to chant Torah, and I would force myself to do it. It was always anxiety producing. It didn’t help that a former rabbi of mine told me that, since I didn’t learn the skill for my Bat Mitzvah (It wasn’t required then), I would never learn it.

This past year I was called upon to teach someone to chant for his granddaughter’s Bat Mitzvah. It helped that this was an old, dear friend who was very patient and extremely musical. I was very proud when he accomplished his few verses. In the process of working with him I finally cracked the code!. More recently, I was confronted with what seemed like an insurmountable challenge. Chant 57 verses in one weekend as an “audition” for a rabbinic position. It seemed impossible. It gave me a whole new empathy for many of my Bar Mitzvah students. I buckled down and did it. All 57 verses. Without a crib sheet. Impressing the congregation and putting my own fear finally to rest. I can do this.

This past weekend I chanted again. Only four verses. But in the process of preparing those four verses I discovered something. I like doing this. Why? Because it causes me to look more deeply at these verses and to understand the nuances of the Hebrew. This past week I read about the kinds of fish we can and cannot eat. There is a beauty in the Hebrew for calling something an abomination. It is poetry. Senapir vkaskeset, fins and scales, may come from the Akkadian and might be horny protrusion and peels. Sharats means to come to life, crawl, swarm, and is close in sound to sheketz, abomination. Note the alliteration and the rhymes, the repetition of the s, k, sh, tz sounds. This poetry cannot be captured in the English.

The Talmud is very clear. It is possible to to read Torah and to pray in any language, so that the people understand it. (Sotah 33a) However there is a depth of meaning, a richness in the text, a nuance in the syntax and the grammar, a pun unearthed by grasping the original, if we can crack the code. It is well worth the practice and the struggle.

Chanting connects me with a long line of people who sang these very verses in exactly the same way. This Shabbat will find me chanting again. Chanting Torah may wind up becoming the first adult study class I teach.