Halakhah Study Group 029

נושא: HSG

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

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העולה למגדל עולה בפתח שהוא לו בדרך קצרה ממקומו וירד מהמגדל בדרך אחר שהוא לו בדרך ארוכה עד מקומו; ואם שני הדרכים שוים עולה בפתח שהוא לו בדרך ימין ויורד בפתח שכנגדו. (ולא ירד עד שעלה כבר הראוי לקרות אחריו):

Someone who ascends to the tower should do so by the shortest route from his place and should descend from the tower by the longest route to his place; if the two distances are equal he should ascend through the entrance which is for him on the right and descend from the opposite side. (He should not descend until the person who is designated to read after him has already ascended.)

This paragraph becomes more easily understood when we understand that the 'tower' referred to here is what today we call the 'bimah' – the raised platform from which the Torah is read in synagogue. In medieval times the bimah was a raised, covered platform placed in the centre of the synagogue, which resembled a tower. The illustration on the left shows the 'tower' of the Istanbuli synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem. The Istanbuli Synagogue was established in 1764 by immigrants to Eretz-Israel from Istanbul, Turkey, from where it derives its name. The illustration on the right shows the 'tower' of the synagogue of Yurburg (Jurbarkas), Lithuania.

2:
The contents of this paragraph may be swiftly explained. When a person is called to the Torah he or she should respond with alacrity. This is an honour which, under normal circumstances, should not be refused or become the subject of discussion. The honoree should approach the bimah as swiftly as is decorously possible by the shortest route from his or her seat. There are two major reasons for this ruling. Firstly, and obviously, this is a manner in which the honoree can demonstrate his love for the Torah and his eagerness to read from it. But the ruling also seeks to ensure continuity in the reading of the Torah. If the time that elapses between one aliyyah and the next becomes too long the congregation, who in earlier times had to follow the reading without benefit of printed ĥumashim; might forget the 'story line'. The modern practice in some congregations of interspersing lengthy commendations (mi she-beyrakh) after each aliyyah is to be deprecated for the same reason.

3:
Where there is no effective difference in the distance from the honoree's seat to the bimah the 'rule of thumb' requires the honoree to approach the bimah from the right. This is based on a statement in the Gemara [Yoma 15b]

Let all your turnings be only to the right.

This is in conformity with the general tendency of the sages to consider that the right hand side is 'right' while the left hand side is 'not right'. This view is not that of the sages alone: in many other cultures the right was considered 'lucky' and the left 'unlucky'. In the English language consider the derivations from the Latin dexter [right hand] and sinister [left hand]: the right hand gives us 'dexterous', a positive characteristic, while the left hand is sinister! In the literature of the Kabbalah the left is held to be so sinister that it is only referred to as sitra aĥra [the other side].

4:
Rabbi Moshe Isserles adds a note at the end of our present paragraph to the effect that an honoree should not leave the bimah until the next honoree has already ascended. This is common politeness, in order that the honoree should not imply by a hasty departure from the bimah that he has no regard for the next person to be honoured. However, if he were to remain at the bimah while the next aliyyah is read he would be creating a situation in which more than three people are standing on the bimah as the Torah is read; and we saw in HSG 026 that the sages wanted only three people to be standing on the bimah at any given time while the Torah is read.

5:
The developments which led to this arrangement, so desired by the sages, to be ignored can be seen in the commentary on our present paragraph by Rabbi Israel Me'ir Kagan, Mishnah Berurah.

Later authorities have written that a person is called to the Torah should go with alacrity, because of the honour due to both the synagogue and the congregation. And he should not leave until the person who is designated to read after him has already ascended because of the honour due to the Sefer Torah – that it should not be left unattended. The custom nowadays is for him to wait until the next person has begun to recite the blessings [see 139:4, HSG 018]. The scrupulous are worried that as they make their way [back to their seat] they may not hear the reading properly, so they wait until the reading is finished and then leave before the next person is called. And he should not leave hastily so that it may not seem as if he is casting off a burden.

I do not think that it would be too presumptuous to suggest that in modern Conservative congregations there is no need to act so 'scrupulously' and the original intentions of the sages can easily be honoured.

In HSG 026 I quoted from the book of Nehemiah: All the people answered, Amen, Amen, with the lifting up of their hands. Sherry Fyman writes:

Why do you suppose the Rabbis created and instituted a bracha after the aliyah when it seems that the Tanach describes a direct, heartfelt response?

I respond:

I do not understand why a berakhah should necessarily preclude 'a heartfelt response'. When we eat food we not only recite a berakhah before eating it – whether it is a whole meal or just a snack – but we also recite a berakhah after enjoying the food. I do not think that this must necessarily detract from the sense of gratitude that should prompt these berakhot. As far as what prompted the sages to institute the berakhah after the Torah Reading is concerned, let me recall what I wrote in HSG 018:

The provisions of this paragraph obviously originate in the earlier custom of having each honoree read his own passage when the length or brevity of the passage read was determined to a large extent by the honoree himself. Originally the first honoree would recite the blessing before the reading and the last honoree, upon completing the reading for the day, would recite the blessing after the reading. It was sensible to ensure that the honoree would know where he was to start reading, so that there would not be a hiatus between the blessing and the reading. When it later became the custom for every honoree to recite the blessings it was but natural that each one would be required to open the scroll, find the place and only then recite the first blessing.

Sherry has a further comment concerning the how many people are standing on the bimah when the Torah is read:

While your point makes complete sense, I don't think I have ever been in a synagogue (neither in New York, where I live, or Venice, Italy, where I have visited) – whether Orthodox or Conservative – that didn't have two gabbaim (in addition to the Torah reader and honoree) on the bimah. Is one gabbai the standard in Israel?

I respond:

See what I wrote in explanation #5 above. In Israel there is no standard. Ĥassidic congregations (and those non-ĥassidic congregations whose customs were influenced by them, can have many people standing around the Torah. Many Ashkenazi congregations whose customs and traditions are based on the views of the Ga'on of Vilna will only have three people standing by the Torah. This is also the case in most Sefaradi congregations in Israel that I have visited. But I have not seen any hard and fast ruling on this, and the customs of many congregations are influenced by what is seen to take place in other congregations.

More of your queries and comments next time.

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