The Bimah As The Torah Reading Platform

The bimah is the raised platform inside a synagogue from which the Torah scroll is read aloud, and in many traditional synagogue plans it once stood at the physical center of the sanctuary rather than at the front near the ark. Reading from an elevated position lets the reader's voice carry to the whole congregation and lets worshippers see the scroll as it is held aloft after the reading, fulfilling a specific requirement that the community be able to view the text. The platform typically holds a reading table onto which the unrolled scroll is laid while the designated reader, who need not be the rabbi, chants the weekly portion using traditional cantillation.

Around the bimah, especially in older Ashkenazi and Sephardi synagogues, worshippers' seating sometimes faces inward toward the platform rather than uniformly toward the ark, a layout that placed the Torah reading, not only the ark housing the scrolls, at the functional heart of the room. Many modern synagogues, particularly Reform and some Conservative congregations, have moved the bimah to the front of the sanctuary beside or below the ark, consolidating the reading platform with the space used for sermons and rabbinic leadership of the service into a single raised area.