Dear Rabbi,

I have read and heard that the Torah Service is actually a reenactment of the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai, with the bima representing Har Sinai etc. I can't find any sources for this. I would like to use this idea when I teach six graders the Torah Service. Any help would be appreciated.

Dear Hillary Zana,

The idea you mentioned is found is in Ta'amei Haminhagim. There it says that the public Torah reading is a symbolic reenactment of the giving of the Torah at Sinai: The gabbai, the one who decides whom to call to the Torah, symbolizes Hashem, who chose the Jewish people to receive the Torah. The person called to the Torah represents the Jewish People. And the one who reads the Torah represents Moshe, the "broker" between the Jewish people and Hashem!

Sources:

• Ta'amei Haminhagim, Shabbat 328, quoting Levush 141:4
• Thanks to Rabbi Sholem Fishbane