And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people (for he was above all the people),.... So plainly seen by them, and what he did, and the more easily heard, for which purpose the pulpit was made for him to stand in:
and, when he opened it, all the people stood up; that they might the better hear the law read, as well as in honour and reverence of it; the Jews say m, that from the times of Moses to Rabban Gamaliel, they learned the law only standing; but after his death a disease came into the world, and they learned it sitting; and now it is a canon with them, that it is not necessary to stand at the reading of the law n.
m T. Bab. Megillah, fol. 21. 1. n Schulchan Aruch, par. 1. Orach Chayim, c. 146. sect. 4.