Bema

A bema is an elevated platform used as an orator's podium. The term can refer to the raised area in a sanctuary. In Jewish synagogues, where it is used for Torah reading during services, the term used is bima or bimah.

Ancient Greece

The remains of the bema, or speaker's platform, at the Pnyx in Athens

The Ancient Greek bēma (βῆμα) means both 'platform' and 'step', being derived from bainein (βαίνειν, 'to go'). The original use of the bema in Athens was as a tribunal from which orators addressed the citizens as well as the courts of law, for instance, in the Pnyx. In Greek law courts the two parties to a dispute presented their arguments each from separate bemas.

Judaism

Bimah of Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue, Mumbai, India

In Judaism, synagogues contain a bimah (Hebrew: בּימה, platform or pulpit), a large, raised, reader's platform, where the Torah scroll is placed to be read.

The bimah is raised to demonstrate the importance of the Torah reader, and to make it easier to hear the recitation of the Torah. Over time, it became a standard fixture in synagogues, where the weekly Torah portion and haftara are read. In Orthodox Judaism, the bimah is located in the center of the synagogue, separate from the Torah ark. In other branches of Judaism, the bimah and the ark are joined together.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Steinmetz, Sol (2005). Dictionary of Jewish Usage. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-4387-4.
  2. ↑ Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Roderick McKenzie. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1940, s.v. βῆμα Archived 2018-09-04 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ Hjalmar Frisk. Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1960, s.v. βαίνω (p. 208).
  4. ↑ Pierre Chantraine. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque. Paris: Klincksieck, 2009 [1968], s.v. βαίνω (p. 157).
  5. ↑ Robert Beekes and Lucien van Beek. Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden: Brill, 2010, s.v. βαίνω (p. 192).
  6. ↑ "Encyclopedia Judaica: The Bimah". JewishVirtualLibrary.org. Retrieved 2019-10-12.
  7. 1 2 Britannica Concise Encyclopædia: "bema"