134 Selected Reform Responsa
of all three of these possible classifications. It is necessary, therefore, to see to what extent it partakes of each.
Is it a duty, a mitzvah, incumbent upon every Jew, to be called up to the Torah ? When a boy who is to be bar mitzvah is called up to the Torah , his father is required to recite the blessing(barukh sh’petorani). Now, clearly in this case, this is a religious duty incumbent upon the father. How could we possibly prevent him from performing this mitzvah, even if he were a notorious sinner? Yet, even in this case, it is to be observed that it is doubtful whether the blessing is really required. The requirement is found in a note by Isserles in Orah Hayyim 225:1, and even he is uncertain about it and, therefore, suggests that in reciting the blessing, the father should leave out God ’s name(a practice which is followed in the case of all blessings of dubious validity, so that God ’s name be not recited in vain). If, then, it is not, broadly speaking, a duty to go up to the Torah , is it a right which a Jew can claim? To some extent this may be so. Certainly a priest can count it as his right to be called up to the Torah first. The law frequently discusses who should be called up to the Torah , after the priest and the Levite have been called up for the first two portions: a bridegroom in the week of his marriage has precedence over a bar mitzvah; next, a father whose child is circumcised that week; then a mourner, on his yahrzeit. Are all these rights which a man can demand? The most that can be said is that they have become customary rights. The law does not make them firm rights, but a man can well be aggrieved if he is denied them. If, for example, someone gives a large sum of money for the privilege of being called up, the old congregations would certainly call him up, and no one of the categories above would feel that they had a right to dispute.
Certainly the calling up partakes, also, of the nature of a privilege because the congregation often calls up a man in order to honor him. It will call up the rabbi for the third portion, which is the first to which a non-priest or non-Levite can be called up. That honor is certainly involved in the Torah reading is clear from the statement in b. Megilla 23a, where it is said that while women may be called up as one of the seven on the Sabbath , we do not call up women because of“the dignity of the congregation”(mipne kovodei ha-tzibur). Thus the dignity and the propriety of the situation involved is a significant consideration.
It is possible to decide the matter more closely than merely upon the vague fact that being called up to the Torah partakes