[Mesorah] New Shtick

[Jeremy Rosenbaum Simon]

Yes, having one's back to the torah is often given as the reason. (The
other one I have heard is that it is so people will realize that the
Haftarah is not being read from a klaf.) But the problem with that claim
is, in shuls that read the haftarah from the side, I have never seen the
ba'al musaf read from the side, and he steps right in to the same place, in
front of the torah (if the torah is indeed right there.) Also, why has this
become popular in just the last few years?
Jeremy

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 9:48 AM, Mandel, Seth <mandels at ou.org> wrote:

>  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.****
>
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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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