Here I stand in this place today
to witness and to announce in a deep and clear voice
that I am a daughter of Israel.

I came up to the Torah today^[1] I took an Aliyah today  
to connect with the generations of boys and girls,
mothers and fathers,
grandmothers and grandfathers,
that read from this book,
interpreted its words,
and saw within it the pillar of fire
that lit the passageway from the past to the present
and from the present to the future.

My reading in this book
strengthens my connection
between myself and my family,
my friends,
and the people of my nation and country.

I receive with love
my portion in the ancient daily tradition of the Torah,
to recite it day and night.

I hope that I will be able to turn over and over in her,^[2] Cf. Pirkei Avot 5:26 — Hafoch ba ve-hafoch ba, de’kula ba – Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it   
to outline my ways of life with her help,
to find paths to wisdom and love
and to use her for the good of all.

Whoever teaches and translates the Torah
connects between the past and the future,
so may the letters [of the Torah] 
— etched in my imagination and uttered by my mouth —
find use in my lying down and in my arising,
in my home and in my travels,
in my youth and in my old age,
because “her ways are ways of pleasantness and all of her paths peace.”^[3] Proverbs 3:17   
Amen.