Sotah 39 - May 7, 16 Iyar - a podcast by Michelle Cohen Farber

When a sefer Torah is opened in shul, one is not allowed to speak, even to talk about halakha. Two different verses are suggested as possible derivations for this rule. A kohen must wash his hands before blessing the people - a verse is brought as proof. When Rabbi Elazar ben Shamoa was asked why he was rewarded with longevity, he answered that he was careful about three things - not making the shul a shortcut, not passing over people to get to his place in the beit midrash and not saying the priestly blessing without saying a brakha first. What is the brakha the kohanim say before blessing the people? What do they say before going up to say the blessing? What do they say after when they turn away from the people and toward the Ark? Other rules are listed regarding both the blessing of the kohanim and the Torah reading including waiting for each section to completely finish or all those to answer amen before continuing on to the next section. One who reads the haftorah, should first read from the Torah and the Torah must be fully rolled, before beginning the haftorah. How would they remove the Torah from shul - would it have to be removed before all the people? On what does that depend? What verses would the people recite when the kohanim would recite birkhat kohanim?

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