The Fire and the Song – for Sara Naama, My First Born

Thoughts on hearing choir practice at the Ulpana Girls High School in Kiryat Arba, 1995 

You were born

an hour before all Jerusalem

lit bonfires

and next morning

the nurses roamed the halls

seeking the song

a precious crystal tune

new life

in my arms

ecstatic

As you grew

we travelled the land

and the globe

you crawled under the branches

of a bitter almond tree

you learned to walk

upon pebbles once spewed

from an old volcano

you stumbled into the thorns

of a rosebush in Mevaseret

and still you sang

You learned to read and to pray

while snow tumbled through the clouds

and your sisters tumbled about the soft carpet

of a cozy foreign apartment

in view of a white Canadian valley

I cried in pain as one more

entered the world

while downtown, at a home of the elderly,

with gold crown slipping about your braids

you still sang

while the first candle of Hanukkah

glimmered, reflected

in the soft brown eyes

of grandmothers

And back in Judea

you dug your fingers into the dirt

and planted honeysuckle with me

you bought figs from Fatima

and grapes from Ratab

with me

you lit pink and blue candles

whose warmth kissed the Etzion mountains

where Judah prayed to win

you lit white candles

marking your womanhood

and like your namesake

brought more blessing

into our home

and now

outside

you march

with torches in the night

and tears of anger

horses stampede your girlfriends’ smiles

and iron badges chill the spirit

Back in Hebron

where I found

profound 

faith

I am blinded 

by the fire in your soul

as I hear you raise

your voice in song

Hallelujah.

Written on Feb. 8, 1995, during a period of protests in response to Israeli government actions against Jewish demonstrators in the wake of the Oslo accords.

Toby Klein Greenwald is an award-winning journalist, theatre director and editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com. She and her husband live and have raised their children in Efrat, in Gush Etzion.