Korach – The Rosh Yeshiva Responds – Cloth Covering on the Shulchan During Keriat HaTorah

by Rabbi Dov Linzer (Posted on July 4, 2024)
Topics: Korach, Rosh Yeshiva Responds, Sefer Bamidbar, Torah

https://www.flickr.com/photos/arselectronica/30961182396

וַיִּקַּ֞ח אֶלְעָזָ֣ר הַכֹּהֵ֗ן אֵ֚ת מַחְתּ֣וֹת הַנְּחֹ֔שֶׁת אֲשֶׁ֥ר הִקְרִ֖יבוּ הַשְּׂרֻפִ֑ים וַיְרַקְּע֖וּם צִפּ֥וּי לַמִּזְבֵּֽחַ
“And Eleazar the priest took the copper fire-pans, which they that were burnt had offered; and they beat them out for a covering of the altar” (Bamidbar 17:4).

This question is taken from a WhatsApp group in which Rabbi Linzer responds to halakhic questions from rabbis and community members.

QUESTION—Chicago, IL

Does a shulchan require a cloth covering for when the Torah is being read? Or can the Torah be read directly on wood?

ANSWER

No, a cover is not strictly needed. The Gemara talks about it being put down directly on a chair or the like. See Megillah 26b, Shulchan Arukh YD 282:12 (and the Tur/Beit Yosef there).

To clarify, if it is read directly on the wood, then the bimah becomes a tashmish kedushah, not just a tashmish d’tashmish. This is a larger discussion if it was only used באקראי.

FOLLOW-UP QUESTION

Thank you. It would be for a new, regularly used bimah.

ANSWER

Then that’s fine, but just know that it makes the kedushah status of the bimah weightier.

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About Rabbi Dov Linzer

Rabbi Dov Linzer is the President and Rosh HaYeshiva of YCT Rabbinical School. Having served as YCT’s Rosh HaYeshiva for over 20 years, Rabbi Linzer became its President in 2019 and assumed both the institutional and Torah-based leadership of YCT. In this dual capacity, Rabbi Linzer has set the vision for YCT as a Center of Torah and Torah Leadership, and, with an amazing team of colleagues and partners, oversees its growth, reach, and further development. An acclaimed Torah and halakha scholar, Rabbi Linzer has been a leading rabbinic voice in the Modern Orthodox community for over 25 years. He has published over 100 teshuvot (responsa) and scholarly Torah articles, and hosts a number of highly popular Torah podcasts. He is co-author, together with Abigail Pogrebin, of It Takes Two To Torah: An Orthodox Rabbi and Reform Journalist Discuss and Debate Their Way Through the Five Books of Moses and will soon be coming out with The Rosh Yeshiva Responds, a collection of his scholarly, halakhic teshuvot to the yeshiva’s hundreds of rabbis in-the-field. In his capacity as a mentor, Rabbi Linzer provides religious guidance to the yeshiva’s students and the over 150 YCT-ordained rabbis who are serving in the field. He answers hundreds of halakhic questions from YCT rabbis and broader community each year, which are available to the public on his blog, psak.yctorah.org.