Question:
Do you have to reserve the first Aliyah for a Kohen and the second for a Levi, or can anyone be called for any Aliyah?
Answer:
This is a very complex question. I want to break this answer into a few questions about the roles of the Kohen and Levi.
What were the historical roles of the Kohen and Levi?
Books have been written on this topic, but in brief, biblically, the Kohanim, or Priests, were the main “officiants in the Temple in Jerusalem.” The Kohanim were responsible for the sacrificial system and maintaining the holiness of the Temple. They acted as the intermediaries between God and the people. The Kohen Gadol, or the High Priest, also entered the holy of holies on Yom Kippur as part of the atonement ritual, and they also carried the Urim and Thummim, which were sacred objects that allowed them to understand God’s will.
The Levi’im, or Levites, mainly served as support staff for the Kohanim. They also performed music and sang songs in the Temple during worship rituals. Lastly, since they did not have a tribal portion of land, Levites were spread throughout the country and served as teachers and judges to the people.
What are the roles today?
These roles were lost after the destruction of the First Temple, but they were resumed with the rebuilding of the Second Temple. However, after the destruction of the Second Temple, these roles ceased to exist. Eventually, the Levites maintained two basic roles. The first was being honored with the second Aliyah to the Torah and washing the hands of the Kohanim before the priestly blessing (called duchening in Yiddish). The Kohanim were honored with the first Aliyah to the Torah, performing the priestly blessing, and engaging in pidyon haben, or redeeming the firstborn son.
This is a very brief overview and should not be seen as comprehensive at all.
Since our question concerns aliyot to the Torah, we will set aside Birkat Kohanim and Pidyon Haben.
To determine whether we are required to call a Kohen and Levi, we need to establish if this is a law from the Torah, from the rabbis, or simply a custom. Since this concerns the public reading of the Torah, it is unsurprising that the Torah itself does not mention this. The first source we find about calling Kohanim and Levi’im is in the Mishnah Gittin 5:8, where it states, “a priest reads first, and after him a Levite, and after him an Israelite, on account of the ways of peace.” This suggests that it might just be a custom created to maintain peace.
The rabbis understood peace to mean that there would be no fighting in the synagogue over who is honored first and second, so they designated the Kohen and Levi for these two honors. Some viewed this as a Torah law, while others saw it as a rabbinic law. According to some, the Kohen and Levi could be bypassed if they were not learned enough to read from the Torah during an Aliyah, as was the case in earlier times when the person would actually read from the Torah, rather than just recite the blessing.
My understanding comes from a responsa written by Rabbi Mayer Rabinowitz. After examining various sources, he concludes that the practice of calling the Kohen/Levi for the first two aliyot is rabbinic, not a Torah law. He further suggests that because the concept is influenced by historical and sociological factors, it can be seen the same way today. If the “ways of peace” in a synagogue were to allow anyone to have the aliyot and call rishon/sheni (one and two) instead of Kohen/Levi, then it should be permitted.
The only caveat I can think of is: what if Kohanim or Levi’im in a synagogue actually object to allowing anyone to have these aliyot? In this case, I would proceed cautiously, not wanting to cause any strife in a synagogue. While there should be no halakhic or Jewish legal reason to prevent anyone from having any of the aliyot, it might be better to continue with the practice to maintain the ways of peace.
