Q. If a person in 2023 is still unwilling to go on the bimah for an aliyah (because of health issues) and insists on standing 12-15 away on the floor of the Shul, can he be given an Aliyah LaTorah?

A. Re- questions 2610, 2624 and 2629 regarding a group of five neighbors that share different sides and corners of their back yards, with one standing in the middle, that want to organize a minyan during the critical Covid times. Since each family has one or several bar mitzva children and they are all staying home because of the required separation. They organized a minyan by just looking over the fences of the adjoining properties. (See there the important details and conditions).

When reading the Torah in the central backyard, can someone in an adjoining property receive an aliyah without entering into the yard where the Torah is being read?

To what we answered: “Horav Dovid Pam Shlit’a mentioned that he heard in the name of Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a that he permitted a neighbor that is inside his own backyard and cannot read the Torah from that far, to be called and then recite the brochos from where he is, as he would normally do, and then just listen to the reading of the Torah.

The above is based on the fact that a blind person, can also be called to the Torah and proceed to recite the brochos before and after, even when he can’t actually read the sefer, but just hear the reading. (See Remah O.H. 139 : 3, and Mishna Berura ibid. 130).”

Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a reiterated his position when dealing with a person who may be in significant health danger if being infected. However, if possible it would be better to avoid the aliyah altogether.

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