Question:
בכבוד הרבנים
It is well known that when there is a Cohen and no Levi present in schul the Cohen gets two aliyos in order to not cast doubt on his lineage (OH 135:8). My question concerns a case when a Cohen is present along with his son. In such a case, wouldn’t it be more logical to give the first aliyah to the father and the second to the son, since there is no possibility that this would put the father’s lineage in doubt? I understand that the minhag is not to call up relatives one after the other because of עין הרע (OH 141:6), but in this case I do not see how giving two aliyot to a father and son is any more likely to inspire jealousy than giving the father two aliyot.
If the answer is that we are concerned that someone may not know the cohanim are father and son, would it make a difference if it is a small minyan where everyone knows everyone? Finally, does the machlokes between Sephardim and Ashkenazim about giving additional cohanim subsequent aliyos make any difference here?
Answer:
Hello,
From your question it is evident that you are a talmid chacham, and your question is enjoyable. The answer you gave to your own question that we don’t call up the son after his father since we can’t call up two relatives consecutively, because of ayin hora, also seems very nice. A number of poskim that I discussed this with, agree to it. Regarding your question to your answer that getting two aliyas, will also cause jealousy, with this I don’t agree. First of all, this reservation is not mentioned in the poskim, that there is any fear of ayin hora, by getting two aliyas. There is a difference between giving two consecutive aliyos to members of the same family, when they are called up one after the other, it puts them in the limelight and can cause an ayin hora. On the other hand, when the person is getting the second aliya by default, and due to the situation, he just continues the next aliya. Secondly, although it is mentioned that the reason for ayin hora is jealousy, this is not necessarily the only reason. (We see this from the Gemora B”M 42a and Maharsha there, that the idea of ayin hora can apply to things that no one but the owner of the item sees. This is not from other’s jealousy).
I doesn’t seem that that machlokes has any ramifications to this question, and there isn’t a machlokes between the Shulchan Aruch and the Rema regarding this.
Hatzlocha Rabba
