MARK WASHOFSKY

that anyone who is distinguished(muflag) in Torah learning may be called to the Torah before the kohen.*® R. Shelomo ben Adret (Rashba) refers his correspondent to Megilah 28a, where R. Yohanan declares that"if a scholar allows an ignorant person to precede him in reciting a benediction, even if that person is the High Priest, that scholar is deserving of death." The law, concludes Adret, requires that a scholar precede a kohen unless the kohen is himself a scholar.®® R. Yitzhaq b. Sheshet(Rivash ) is more explicit."When the yisra’el is a scholar and the priest an ignoramus, the scholar is called first. There is no concern of mipnei darkhei shalom in this case. On the contrary, it is a sin if this procedure is not followed." Nonetheless, the minhag of"all Israel " is for even an ignorant priest to be called first to the Torah ,"and one should not change this minhag, since this would lead to contention."! A similar view is expressed by Maimonides in his commentary. The priest, he says, does not rank above a Torah scholar. It is scholarship and not yihus which rules in these matters. Do we not read that"a mamzer who is a scholar takes precedence over a High Priest who is an ignoramus?"® Unlike R. Asher, Rambam does not require that this other scholar be a muflag; the honor of reading first from the Torah should be bestowed in order of the Torah knowledge of those present in the synagogue. It is only when the kohen is equal in knowledge to the yisra’el that he is forbidden to forego his honor,"for the sake of peace." Rambam is aware, of course, that custom does not follow what he considers to be the plain meaning of the Talmud text. As opposed to Rivash , however, he goes out of his way to condemn the minhag. Noting that in all lands even an ignorant priest precedes a scholar to the Torah , he protests that the practice has no root whatever in the Torah , is not mentioned in the Talmud , and is not the intention of the Mishnah . "I am absolutely astonished," he writes,"that this custom exists as well in the southern regions, whose practice ordinarily conforms to the language of the Talmud and who are not afflicted with the sickness of minhagim and of the opinions of recent authorities." Nonetheless, the minhag exists, and in his Code, Maimonides seems

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