Rav Chaim Hillel shalom u’vracha:
How are you doing ? How’s your family ? I hope everyone is well.
I have a question for you about what happened in our shul on Shabbos Yud Shvat. We only have 1 Sefer Torah so the Rav wanted to give only Chabbadnikim aliyot. So he requested that the Cohenim leave the Beit Knesset for the 1st 2 aliyot. One Cohen refused so he sold Cohen to a Yisrael.
When the time came to call up the 1st aliyah, me as the Gabbai was asked to say :”..למרות יש כאן כהן , ישראל במקום כהן”
Afterwards 1 of the Cohenim came up to me and said what I did was the equivalent of eating the Terumah of the Cohen which is chayav karait, chas v’shalom.
– According to Halacha, did the Rav have any right to sell the 1st aliyah to a non-Cohen after the Cohen refused to leave the shul ?
– If the Rav did something publicly against Halachah, should he continue to be someone that can be consulted about Halachic issues ?
– Am I complicit to an avayera by following the Rav of the shul, even if I disagreed with it ?
– Am I chayav karait or can this be nullified (like by 40 lashes )?
– Isn’t this contrary to Chabad’s philosophy of “Ahavat Yisrael gadol yoter m’Ahavat Hashem?”
All of the best to you, your family, Rav Yitzchak v’Rebbetzin Zeesy, your brothers and sisters and their families
David Miller