146. Too Short an Aliyah

23:23 If the baal korei read one only two verses and the oleh said the concluding bracha, the reading must be repeated with both the blessing before and after. Since the oleh said the concluding blessing, he must start again from Barchu. (If the concluding bracha has not yet been recited, the baal korei can just read one more verse, even if the Torah had already been rolled shut – Mishnah Brurah 137:13.) The baal korei then repeats the two verses he already read and he continues with at least one more verse. If this is the third of three aliyos (and the first two aliyos were only three verses each – MB 137:13), he must read at least two more verses, making a total of ten among the three aliyos. If this error happened to a kohein and they called the Levi before they realized the mistake, the procedure is as follows: if the Levi has not said the bracha, even if he already said Barchu, the kohein is called back to read three verses with the brachos. The Levi then waits and has his aliyah after that. If, however, the Levi said the bracha before they realized the mistake, the baal korei reads for the Levi starting from where he ended the kohein's aliyah. In such a case, they do not repeat what was already read because it would disparage the kohanim present by appearing as if a Levi were called for the kohein aliyah. After the Levi, two Yisraelim are called so that there will be three proper aliyos; the kohein aliyah does not count because it was only two verses long. If it happened that only two verses were read for a Levi and the Yisroel after him already said the bracha, they read for the Yisrael the two verses that were already read for the Levi plus at one additional verse. Another Yisroel is then called in order to have three proper aliyos. Let's say that no kohein was present and a Yisroel was called in his place. If the baal korei read only two verses and the error was not realized until after they called the second Yisroel, who already said the bracha. the baal korei reads for the second Yisroel from the beginning of the Torah reading. The first Yisroel should wait and have an aliyah after the second Yisroel, and then a third Yisroel should be called. 23:24 A boy under the age or bar mitzvah should not serve as baal korei, nor should he be given an aliyah. (If the minor is the only one who knows how to read the Torah, we may be lenient – MB 282:13. A minor may be called for maftir - MB 282:12.)