[Avodah] Calling people up to the Torah

[shalomyitz at comcast.net]

On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 04:32:46PM +0000, shalomyitz at comcast.net wrote: 
: In the Torah, aren't people generally called by this formula (Yehoshua 
: ben Nun, etc)... 


R'MB: 

>And more people in Tanakh are simply called by their name without the 
>"ben ...", so in theory the minhag could have evolved to do that instead. 
>Or go two generations back, as when HQBH "called up" Betzalel ben Uri 
>ben Chur (as opposed to Oholiav ben Achisamackh). 

But, it seems that for most of our existence as a kahal -- at least for most 
of the time we have been calling people to come up and read the Torah 
-- the use of Shimon ben Reuvein has been the standard way people were 
identified.... not just in calling them to the Torah, but in any way.... Much the 
same way we identify you as Micha Berger, to distinguish you from Micha 
Swartz, Micha Rubenstein, and Micha Levine... So, here it's just a way to 
identify which Micha we are talking about. 


>But really I took this question as asking in contrast to the qehillos 
>that don't use names altogether. 

But, this assumes the no-name method was the default, and the more common 
method needs a source/explanation. It seems to me that the obvious thing 
people would do is call up someone and use the name that commonly would 
identify them. What might need to be explained is the source for not using 
names! 


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