Shalom.
I am Rabbi Jonathan Ginsberg of Ezra-Habonim, Niles Township Jewish Congregation, Skokie Illinois. I am going to talk about the Torah and show you how to have an honor and Aliyah to the Torah.
First of all, this is a Torah. It is the five books of Moses, the first five books in the bible. As you can see, it also has various dress items. It has a brass plate and this one has the twelve tribes of Israel beautifully engraved. It has a dress in mantle and it has some beautiful silver handles up hear also for dress. In alternative to this is the clown which also can go on the Torah. And finally, we usually decorate the Torah also with this pointer; it actually has a small hand on the end.
The Torah is written on animal parchment, hand written and we do not want to destroy it or hurt it so we very lightly used this pointer to touch instead of the oil from our fingers that can make it worst. So I just take off the remonim here, the handles and then we take off the brass plate and then the mantle. It also has a sash around it to hold it together and this one is decorated with lions of Judah and a ten commandments. And then, we open up the Torah, you could see this is handwritten with Hebrew letters and we now open up to the Torah portion we happen to read this passed week of the ten commandments.
Now, if you having an Aliyah, you will be called by your Hebrew name, you come to it from this side and if you are wearing a Tallit, a prayer shawl, you will take the fringes that are on it and you will touch the place that the reader points to as he will be reading or she will. And this like for example right here and then you say the blessings and many synagogues will post the blessings on this side, and so you can stand here and read the tzitzit, the blessing here. And the first one is (foreign language), and then the congregation says (foreign language) and then you repeat that (foreign language). And these blessings are found in most prayer books, and we can also provide a transliterated copy very easily. And it is transliterated also for people who do not know how to read Hebrew well over here.
Also, then the reader will open it up, you will start chanting, it sounds like this (foreign language).
When the reader finishes reading that portion and you can read too, you could be your own reader, but usually there is somebody else reading. The reader will point to where the readers finish. You again will take the fringe of your prayer shawl, touch it, close the Torah Scrolls, then nobody thinks the blessing are in the Torah and you conclude with (foreign language).
Now, if you do not want a speaking part, there is another part which is called hagba where you lift the Torah. And then way you do that is, of course sometimes it can be very heavy and one side of the other, you need to get leverage. So they call everybody to stand and then you will lift with leverage off the side and then you turn your back to the congregate so that they can see the Torah in at least three column, well, people say this is the Torah that God gave to Moses and then, you goes sit over there and somebody else call the Galila who have the honor of tying the Torah and they will do it while you are holding it up and sitting and basically, they just means putting the sash back on and then the mantle and then they will put the Torah in a Torah holder while the next person comes up and chants the prophetic portion.
So I hope that explains a little bit about the Torah. It takes us a year to read it. We start in the fall and end in the holiday, and begin an end in the holiday called Simcha Torah and we have on Shabbath, seven honors plus the last honor called mafitir. During the week, we also read the Torah and we usually have three people called up, that is how to have an Aliyah. Thank you.
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