גיטין נט

It is common in Sephardic shuls for a person honored with an aliyah to read his portion if he knows how to do so. One day, a prominent Ashkenaz Rabbi who was a כהן was visiting out-of-town and went to the local Sephardic shul to daven. When asked, he responded that yes, he is a כהן and he was given the aliyah. After the כהן made the ברכה, the baal koreh pointed to the פרשה and told him to read. Unprepared but embarrassed to decline, the Rabbi read but needed to be corrected several times. Several weeks later, knowing that he would need to again be in that town and that he might again be asked to read, indeed hoping that he would be given the opportunity to redeem himself, the Rabbi carefully reviewed the כהן portion. Sure enough, he was again honored with כהן and he read beautifully. The smile on his face quickly disappeared, however, when they called כהן במקום לוי.

06/10/2021