Mar 4, 2008

interesting psak from Rav Elyashiv

Recently a question arose in a shul in Yerushalayim during davening. An EMT was given an aliya to the Torah. His beeper went off during the aliya and it was an emergency call. He had to run out in the middle of the aliya, without reciting the concluding brachos.

Neither the gabbai nor the person reading the Torah knew what to do - who should say the concluding brachos. I think the baal koreh himself recited the concluding brachos. They sent the question to Rav Elyashiv so they would know what to do in the future, if it should happen again.

Rav Elyashiv paskened that in such a situation, somebody else should be called up to the Torah, and that whole aliya should be read again. It does not help for the baal koreh to recite the concluding brachos.

Rav Elyashiv also added that in such a situation, when the replacement person is called up to the Torah, they should read an additional 3 (at least) psukim beyond the amount that had been read for the previous guy (for the EMT who ran out).

6 comments:

  1. which aliyah? is it really a problem if it is not the first or last one?

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  2. Maybe he should have added that if it is to save someone's life, a prayer on their behalf be said? That's all I got.

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  3. LOZ - why should it make a difference? the aliya has to be finished somewhere and you have to call a certain number of people up. So how would that aliya be finished?

    potato - good suggestion..

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  4. RAFI:

    "why should it make a difference?"

    iirc, back in the day, the first oleh said the first berakhah and the last oleh said the second one. that was it.

    only later did it become the practice for all olim to say both berakhot. don't know if this really matters for the particular question at hand, but i was just thinking . . .

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  5. It's nice to see Rav Elyashiv actually doing what rabbis should be doing: i.e. paskening shulchan aruch and NOT paskening concerts, mehadrin busses, burkas, city hall construction, etc.

    -D.A.

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  6. LOZ - I was not aware of that

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