The word you are looking for is "yad".
The Torah-scroll is read in the synagogue four times weekly, minimum; sometimes more.
Torah scrolls are read from several times every week. (minimum: Monday, Thursday and Sabbath mornings).
Portions of it are read, several times each week.
This tool is called a Yad (יד)
It is used for reading the Torah out loud during the service!
The Torah is the Hebrew Bible. Like the Christian Bible, the Torah can be read and studied at anytime. In synagogues, it is most commonly used during Shabbat morning prayer services in which a section of the Torah is read every week.
It represents a human hand ("yad"), and is used to point to the place in the Torah scroll which is being read.
A pointer, used in business or teaching = מַצבִּיעַ (matzbia)the specialty pointer used to read the torah = יד (yad)
The Torah is not "read backward". The Hebrew alphabet goes from right to left as opposed to the Latin alphabet (that English uses) that goes from left to right. The Hebrew is read properly (right to left), which would make it appear to an English-speaker that the Torah is being read backwards when it is actually being read forwards.
The pointy things on forks are called tines. They are used to spear and pick up food.
The Jewish Bible is called the Tanakh, which includes the Torah and prophets. It is used for learning and teaching, hope and inspiration, reverence and prayer; and it is read from in the synagogue.
There are two surfaces that may be described as desks, though the smaller one is more accurately classed as a forward-facing lectern.The larger "desk" is the Bima, a slanted table on which the Torah is opened to be read from. The Bima is in the center of the men's section of the synagogue.The smaller desk, the lectern, is the Amoud ("stand"), in front of which the leader of the prayers stands. It faces in the same direction that the congregants face, and is in the front of the synagogue to the right of the Holy Ark.See also:More about prayers and synagogues