Sotah 41B

מאתחלתא דמועד.

implying that the assembly takes place at the beginning of the Festival, when the entire Jewish people comes to Jerusalem.

וחזן הכנסת נוטל ספר תורה ונותנו לראש הכנסת. שמעת מינה חולקין כבוד לתלמיד במקום הרב! אמר אביי: כולה משום כבודו דמלך.

§ It is taught in the Mishnah: And the synagogue attendant takes a Torah scroll and gives it to the head of the synagogue, until it is eventually passed to the king. The Talmud suggests: You can learn from the fact that all of these dignitaries receive the Torah scroll before the king that honor may be given to a student in the presence of the teacher. Abaye said: A proof may not be adduced from here, as the entire process is for the honor of the king, to show that he is removed from ordinary people by many ranks.

והמלך עומד ומקבל וקורא יושב. אגריפס המלך עמד וקיבל וקרא עומד. עומד מכלל דיושב? והאמר מר: אין ישיבה בעזרה אלא למלכי בית דוד בלבד, שנאמר: ״ויבא המלך דוד וישב לפני ה׳ ויאמר וגו׳״! כדאמר רב חסדא: בעזרת נשים, הכא נמי בעזרת נשים.

It is taught in the Mishnah: And the king stands, and receives the Torah scroll, and reads from it while sitting. King Agrippa arose, and received the Torah scroll, and read from it while standing. The Talmud asks: By inference, until that point he had been sitting. But didn’t the Master say (Tosefta, Sanhedrin 4:4) that sitting in the Temple courtyard is permitted only for kings from the house of David, as it is stated: “Then King David went in, and sat before YHWH; and he said: Who am I?” (II Samuel 7:18). The Talmud answers: As Rav Ḥisda said in a similar context: This took place not in the Israelite courtyard, where the prohibition against sitting applies, but in the women’s courtyard. Here too, the assembly was in the women’s courtyard.