Q. It is now August 2023. There are no more restrictions in terms of entering or being in a building mask-less or sitting in close proximity to another person. Is it permitted to give an aliyah to a person who is still mask wearing but most importantly will not go up to the bima and will only stand 15 feet away and look up towards the Torah as was permitted during the COVID emergency times?

A. Although some Poskim considered proper at the height of the Covid fear days to have a separate Sefer Torah being read away from the main one for distancing purposes. A plastic sheet separation was accepted as more practical and Halacha accepted.

Horav Yaakov Hirschman Shlit’a maintains that the type of aliyah mentioned may not valid in Halacha. It also includes what others would then do by having the receiver of the aliyah reading another Torah away from the one being read for all at the bimah.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a