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?<br>
Jeremy<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 9:48 AM, Mandel, Seth <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mandels@ou.org">mandels@ou.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";color:#1f497d">Actually, that has a source and was an old minhog in some places.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";color:#1f497d">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";color:#1f497d">However, I do not have enough data points to say how this spread from the yeshivos and few g’dolim who practiced it.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif"">Rabbi Seth Mandel</span><span style="font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif""><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> <a href="mailto:mesorah-bounces@lists.aishdas.org" target="_blank">mesorah-bounces@lists.aishdas.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:mesorah-bounces@lists.aishdas.org" target="_blank">mesorah-bounces@lists.aishdas.org</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Jeremy Rosenbaum Simon<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, February 24, 2012 9:40 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:mesorah@aishdas.org" target="_blank">mesorah@aishdas.org</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Mesorah] New Shtick<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">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.<br>
Jeremy<u></u><u></u></p>
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