I observe people in the synagogue who join in with the few last words read by the Baal Koreh for each section of the reading.
Do they achieve anything positive by this?
Is this a relic of some earlier and better practice maybe?
Mi Yodeya is a question and answer site for those who base their lives on Jewish law and tradition and anyone interested in learning more. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityI observe people in the synagogue who join in with the few last words read by the Baal Koreh for each section of the reading.
Do they achieve anything positive by this?
Is this a relic of some earlier and better practice maybe?
O.C. 141:2 seems to clarify that two people should not read from the Torah simultaneously. This refers to the combination of the oleh and the shat'z. (Original custom was for the oleh to read the portion himself.)
I'm learning "kal vachomer" that if they prohibited the two people directly "involved" not to read aloud together, then the congregants shouldn't be doing this, either.
A separate paragraph in O.C. 139:3 mentions that the oleh must be able to read from the written Torah as one cannot say written words of the Torah by heart. This leads to a debate as to whether a blind person may be called as an oleh. Maharil does allow a blind person to be an oleh. See there for details. But, my inference is that the discussion of getting around the issue to reciting written words by heart seems to be limited to the oleh and not congregants. I'm inferring that when they say the last few words aloud, they may be violating this rule, unless they are reading the words from the Chumash as they are saying it.