1.Before the Torah reading of the Maftir (1), the Half-Kaddish is recited. When this Kaddish is recited, the Torah scroll from which the reading was completed and the scroll from which the Maftir will be read (on occasions such as a Festival, when Maftir is read from a separate scroll) should both be placed on the reading table. On a day when three Torah scrolls are taken out, the first scroll need not be placed on the table for this prayer.

2. The [person called up for] Maftir should not begin the blessings for the Haftorah until the Torah has been closed and covered in its mantle.

FOOTNOTES:

(1) As we saw before, the regular Shabbos Maftir consists of repeating the last few lines of the weekly portion, which were already read for the seventh Aliyah. Here is a quote from Halacha -Yomi 78:8 which explains the reason behind the Maftir reading: "...the regular Maftir reading on Shabbos was instituted as a show of respect for the Torah, so that the honor given to [the reading of a section of] the Prophets [for the Haftorah] should not be on par with that given to the [reading from the] Torah. To explain: Since both a person reading from the Torah and a person reading from the Prophets recite blessings before and after the readings, it was ordained that [the person who will read the Haftorah, who we call the] Maftir, reads a few lines from the Torah first (that is, the Maftir portion) to demonstrate that the Torah reading is of primary importance."

The Recitation of Maftir Paragraph 3-4
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Halacha-Yomi, Copyright (c) 2002 Project Genesis, Inc.