12 Apr Krias HaTorah = Korban

The Magen Avraham in siman resh peh bais, seif koton yud ches says that a man whose wife gives birth should get an aliyah after forty days if it is a baby boy or eighty days if it is a baby girl.

The Sheailos U’Tshvos Chasam Sofer, Orach Chaim, siman nun alef says that from this Magen Avraham we see that any time a person gets an aliyah it is in the place of bringing a korban. Regardless of the topic being read in the Torah at the time of the aliyah, when a husband gets an aliyah it is considered as if his wife brought a korban. The Chasam Sofer adds that this is the reason that one who has to bentch gomel waits for the day when the Torah is read, because an aliyah to the Torah is in the place of a korban,

We find similar reasoning in the Tur and Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, siman taf resh samech, seif alef regarding the seder of Hoshanos. The minhag is that we take out the Torah and then circle the bimah. The Bach explains that listening to krias HaTorah serves as a kaporah in a similar way to the bringing of korbanos on the mizbeach and it serves as a zecher to the circling of the mizbeach.

The Biur HaGra brings a makor from the Yalkut Shimoni that explains the passuk in Tehilim perek chof vov, passuk vov that says “Erchatz benikayon kapai.” The posuk ends off that we will circle the Mizbeach. This refers to the time of the Bais Hamikdash when they circled the Mizbeach with their Lulavim. The Gra adds; that may have been what was done when there was a Bais HaMikdosh, but what about in this age? He says that when the Chazzan stands with the Sefer Torah in his hands and everyone circles him, that is similar to the Mizbeach in the time of the Bais Hamikdash.

May we merit to circle the real Mizbeach very soon in our day.

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