[Mesorah] New Shtick

[Mandel, Seth]

Actually, that has a source and was an old minhog in some places.
According to halokho, one is forbidden to have his back to the Sefer Torah.  In old Ashk'naz shuls in Europe, there was a place for the S'T at the side of the bench in back of the bima where it was put during the haftoro.  Shuls in America and EY were built without the ornate, "caged" bimas that were standard in Europe, and the bench was a plain bench, and the magbiah or the golel held the S'T, in many places right in back of where the person leins.  So in many places, the maftir shifted to the side so that he would not have his back to the S'T.
However, I do not have enough data points to say how this spread from the yeshivos and few g'dolim who practiced it.

Rabbi Seth Mandel
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The Orthodox Union
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From: mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org [mailto:mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org] On Behalf Of Jeremy Rosenbaum Simon
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2012 9:40 AM
To: mesorah at aishdas.org
Subject: [Mesorah] New Shtick

I don't know whether this is entirely on point, but when someone (R. Mandel?) mentioned that he thought the announcement about Zachor was new shtick, it reminded me of something else I think is new shtick. Has anyone noticed that recently some shuls have had the haftarah read from teh side of the bimah? Is there any source for this? Did any see this before 10 years ago? When I raised this on the Google leining list, no one seemed to know what I was talking about, but I have seen it all over the NY area in the past several years. Drives me crazy, esp. when I am asked to do it.
Jeremy
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