"No?" said Jossel.
"Why not?" asked Brum sharply.
"Because it stands that the Law shall be read. And a blind man cannot read. He can only recite."
"But I know every word of it," protested Brum.
The Beadle shook his head. "But suppose you make a mistake! Shall the congregation hear a word or a syllable that God did not write? It would be playing into Satan's hands."
"I shall say every word as God wrote it. Give me a trial."
But the fusty Beadle's piety was invincible. He was highly sympathetic toward the human affliction, but he refused to open the Ark and produce the Scroll.
"I'll let the Chazan (cantor) know he must read to-morrow, as usual," he said conclusively.
Jossel went home, sighing, but silenced. Zillah however, was not so easily subdued. "But my Brum will read it as truly as an angel!" she cried, pressing the boy's head to her breast. "And suppose he does make a mistake! Haven't I heard the congregation correct Winkelstein scores of times?"
"Hush!" said Jossel, "you talk like an Epicurean. Satan makes us all err at times, but we must not play into his hands. The Din (judgment) is that only those who see may read the Law to the congregation."