I can read a bit of Hebrew. I learned it at school and my mother is a talented Hebrew teacher. So I can tell you that I am familiar with all
of the 27 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, even the ones that sound the same at
the end of words but take a different form.
But there’s one letter that has long been the bane of my
life and that is the vav.
The vav can be said three ways:
·
As a consonant you say V
·
With a dot on top you say OR
·
With a dot in the middle you say OO
I have no idea why I struggle with vav. It isn’t the hardest
letter. Kaf, for example, also has three forms. But kaf is not my problem. Vav
is.
I was walking with my friend Naomi on the Heath last week. All good Heath walks include a coffee stop at
Kenwood House, but it was raining so we couldn’t sit outside, and she had her
dog with her so we couldn’t sit inside. We stood in the covered courtyard with coffee-cups in hand, looking out
at the rain, and I found myself telling her about my vav complex.
I told Naomi how hard my mother had tried to teach me the
difference between vav with the dot on top and vav with the dot inside. She tried teaching me with games, with explanation
and with repetition and with patience. Despite all her skill and efforts, the
penny never dropped for me.
As I stood in the courtyard, I noticed I still couldn’t remember which way round
it was. It was obvious for Naomi. It wasn’t for me. It was such a small thing but I couldn’t
remember the difference no matter how hard I concentrated.
A few days later I was standing in synagogue, without a
coffee-cup in my hand but still with vav on my mind.
It suddenly occurred to me to test my abilities to read vav
correctly while singing along loudly with everyone else.
It was the beautiful concluding prayer sung
when returning the Torah to the Ark. The prayer begins with lines from
Proverbs, concerning the finding of wisdom.
I watched myself singing along all the while looking ahead
in my prayer book, scanning for approaching vav’s.
A tree of life
to those that reach for her
And whoever
holds on to her is content
Her ways are
pleasant and...
There was a vav
coming. What was going to come out of my mouth when I sang:
… her paths are
peace
I got it right.
I felt like I was clearing
hurdles as I ran around the track.
Take us back God to yourself
And let us
come back
My voice
soared along with everyone, correct again and again,
Make our days new like it used to be
I was perfect.
As the doors of the
Ark closed and the notes of the prayer faded,
I realized there
was nothing wrong with my brain
That there never
had been
And that when the
situation demands it, the right words will always be there
