13 Sep Bypassing Kohanim

I. Honoring the Kohen

The Torah (Lev. 21:8) commands us to honor kohanim, members of the priestly family, by allowing them to go first (Gittin 59b). We let them go first in line and, by rabbinic decree, call them to the Torah for the first aliyah.

The Gemara (ibid.) states that on Shabbos morning, a kohen may not forgo his privilege and allow another to receive the first aliyah, even a great Torah scholar, because it might lead to fighting in the synagogue. However, at the other three Torah readings, which fewer people attend, the kohen may relinquish his right to go first.

This would seem to resolve many problems. If there are many people who need to receive an aliyah on a Monday or Thursday, a kohen may give permission to someone else to receive his aliyah. However, Tosafos (ad loc., sv. aval) say that in the time of Talmud, not as many people attended synagogue during the week. However, in the Tosafist era, weekday synagogue attendance was high and the concern of fighting was sufficient to prohibit a kohen from forgoing his honor, even for a great Torah scholar. This is the standard ruling (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 135:4).

II. Communal Custom

There is another important ruling that affects our question. The Beis Yosef (Orach Chaim 135) and Magen Avraham (ad loc., no. 7) quote the Maharik (Responsa, no. 9) as permitting a congregation to forcefully remove a kohen when someone else buys the first aliyah in the Torah on Shabbos Bereishis. This could serve as an important precedent.

However, Rav Moshe Sofer (Responsa Chasam Sofer, vol. 1 nos. 24-25) makes some important points and corrections based on a careful reading of the Maharik’s responsum. This kohen was asked to attend another nearby synagogue because this one time a year, the synagogue had a long-standing custom–accepted by the entire community including the kohanim–to raise money for the synagogue’s upkeep by selling the firstaliyah. The kohen was forcefully prevented from attending the synagogue, not removed. This is a very limited precedent. Even a communal custom that is accepted by kohanim can only be maintained if it is an occasional occurrence and for the sake of a mitzvah.

Rav Sofer’s contemporary, Rav Elazar Fleckles (Teshuvah Me-Ahavah 1:91), makes similar points. Another contemporary, Rav Shmuel Landau (Shivas Tziyon, no. 6), writes similarly and adds that the Maharik was dealing with a custom that is intended to honor the Torah. The Torah’s honor takes precedence over that of the kohen. Otherwise, such a custom is intended to undermine the commandment to honor a kohen and must be discarded.

III. Allowing and Leaving

Rav Moshe Feinstein (Iggeros Moshe, Orach Chaim 2:34; 3:20) writes that our current reality is closer to that of the Talmud than Medieval times–significantly fewer people come to synagogue during the week than on Shabbos. Therefore, the original Talmudic rule should apply and kohanim may relinquish their right to the first aliyah. He emphasizes repeatedly, though, that they must do so willingly. The Maharsham (Responsa 1:214) makes a similar point about times being different.

Rav Moshe Sofer’s son, Rav Avraham Binyamin Sofer (Responsa Kesav Sofer 1:36), offers two original arguments to allow kohanim to forgo their right on mincha of Yom Kippur in a community where that aliyahis sold and failure to do so will cause a fight. First, the kohen is not allowing anyone specific to take thealiyah. He is merely giving it to the highest bidder, without choosing an individual. Second, this will actually prevent an argument rather than cause one. The first reason would only apply in unique situations.

Rav Moshe Schick (Responsa Maharam Schick, Orach Chaim 61) writes that calling a kohen to the Torah for the first aliyah is a fulfillment of a biblical mitzvah. If no kohen is present, there is no mitzvah. However, asking a kohen to leave is plotting to avoid a mitzvah, which is hardly proper. We must strive to fulfillmitzvos, not actively avoid them.

IV. Two Grooms

But if we do not ask a kohen to forgo his privilege nor to leave the synagogue, what do we do if two Yisra’elim have chiyuvim, obligations to be called to the Torah? What do we do when we have two grooms, on their wedding day, in the synagogue on a Monday morning? If a kohen is present, only one groom may be called to the Torah.

We have to remember that the term “chiyuv” is misleading. The obligation is a matter of custom. In contrast, the commandment to honor a kohen is a biblical law (some of the above-quoted responsa discuss whether the obligation today is biblical or rabbinic).

Rav Tzvi Hirsch Grodzinski (Mikra’ei Kodesh 17:6 n. 8) rules that in such a case as described, we do not call one of them in the place of a kohen. Rather, the two grooms draw a lottery (the equivalent to flipping a coin), and the loser receives hagbahah, lifting the Torah, instead of an aliyah. However, Rav Moshe Feinstein allows asking the kohen to leave. Similarly, Rav Eliezer Melamed (Peninei Halachah, Tefillah 22:7) quotes Rav Ovadiah Yosef (Yabi’a Omer 6:23) as ruling that the congregation may ask the kohen to leave the synagogue for the first aliyah.