resigned to the fact that the minhag determines practice:"It is the widespread custom today that even an ignorant priest precedes a yisra’el who is a Torah scholar."
Although R. Yosef Karo was a great admirer of Rambam , this was too much. In a lengthy analysis of the issue in the Beit Yosef,” he comments that"we must at least give an explanation to this minhag. It has been accepted by every community, and it is not fitting to say that this acceptance has been in error." Karo posits that the halakhic arguments offered by Rambam , Rashba , Rivash , and the Tur assume that to allow an ignorant priest to precede a scholar to the Torah is an affront to that scholar’s dignity, and kevod haTorah must surely override kevod hakohen. This is not necessarily the case:"If the rabbis ordained that a priest should be called first to the Torah‘for the sake of peace,’ then this is no insult to a scholar." Indeed,"in these times, the great sages do not insist on the honor of being called first." Rather, it is more honorific for them to receive the final aliyah to the Torah ,"and in this manner, the kohanim do not have to forego their honor for the sake of the great scholars." As for the Talmudic sources cited by the earlier authorities, none of these oblige us to overturn the minhag. Even if"a mamzer, who is a scholar, takes precedence over a High Priest who is an ignoramus," this applies"to everything other than the reading of the Torah, " which has been rendered an exception by the taqanah"for the sake of peace."
It is tempting to view the debate between Karo and the other scholars as an argument over the correct halakhic interpretation of passages such as Gittin 59b, M. Horayot 3.7 and others. We should resist this temptation. Citing a responsum of the fifteenth-century Italian , R. Yosef Kolon, Karo is aware of the latter's view that"all the posgim agree that the leading scholar is called first to Torah, " and he even struggles to fit the gaonic rulings into this category.” The halakhah, as understood by a long chain of authorities, either allows the priest to give way to the scholar or
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