Sefer Torah (III)
- When a person sees the letters so clearly that he can read
them, he receives a great light. Because the person who lifts the Torah and
shows it to the congregation is the one through whom this light enters the
congregation, his merit is as great as the merit of all those put together who
were called up to the Torah before him. - The sefer Ben Ish Chai, a compendium of halachah
written by a great Sephardi kabbalist, says that a person should look at a
word whose first letter is the first letter of his name. - When walking the Torah scroll through the congregation,
from the eastern portion of the synagogue, it should be carried toward the
south. - If there are two people who have a yahrtzeit, and
only one of them can be called up to the Torah, the second one should be
honored with lifting the Torah. - If a congregant is offered the opportunity to lift the
Torah (hagbah) or place the covering over it (glilah), he
should, if he can, choose hagbah.