On Monday the 28th of Tishrei this year, I was standing among the crowd in the Satmar beis midrash in Yerushalayim, waiting for them to start reading from the Torah. I waited and waited, while thinking to myself that if on Shabbos kodesh one has to wait to hear the Torah reading, fine; but on a weekday, so I thought, a bit of consideration for the people who are in a hurry to be on their way would be in place. Even if one says the words of the davening slowly and with kavanah, and we read from the Torah carefully and properly, at least the activities before and after the reading should be done with alacrity. An additional three or four minutes during davening is liable to cause someone to miss his bus or to be late for work or for other errands.
“What’s taking so long?” I asked my friend.
“The one who got pesichah,” he explained, “mistakenly took the sefer Torah that they read from on Simchas Torah.”
I could not understand how something like this could happen. Our gabbai always sets up the sefarim in a way that the sefer Torah that is rolled to the right parshah is in the center. It never happens that someone gets confused and takes a sefer Torah that is standing on the side.
“It’s not a sefer Torah that is usually here,” someone explained. “It’s usually elsewhere. They probably used it for hakafos, and it needs to be returned to its set place.” I prepared for a long wait, since now we were reading from Parshas Noach, and the sefer from Simchas...
