Reverse Discrimination

As readers of this space know, I have complained from time to time about Hagbah discrimination, to wit, the fact that, despite being in excellent physical shape, neither I, nor my sons are ever asked to do hagbah (lift the Torah after the reading). This hagbah discrimination is obviously related to the fact that we are all small. Thankfully, we've all learned to deal with hagbah discrimination and move on with our lives.

Yesterday, I was the victim of "Reverse Hagbah Discrimination".

Shabbos afternoon, for reasons that are beyond the scope of this post, I davened mincha at our local roving minyan (which I almost never do). The minyan takes place in people's homes, usually in their basements (as was the case yesterday). As soon as the Torah was removed from the Aron, the gabbai asked me to do hagbah. For a brief moment, I was surprised and excited. Then it hit me. I realized that the only reason he asked me to do hagbah was because I was probably the only one there who could lift the Torah without puncturing the 8 foot basement ceiling. D'oh!