Whoever wants

יעמוד מי שירצה           The רמ״א (O.C. 428:6) writes: “The minhag is not to call up someone by name for the עלייה of the תוכחה; rather, we call up whoever wishes ” There is a  מחלוקת between the משנה ברורה in ביאור הלכה and the מחצית השקל regarding how the גבאי should actually call up the עולה for the תוכחה. According to the מחצית השקל, the גבאי announces: “יעמוד מי שירצה”—an open call for any volunteer to take the עלייה. The ביאור הלכה, however, strongly objects. He writes that he dislikes when people introduce new practices that “do not sound correct,” and he adds that “there is no such minhag to do so.” Therefore, he interprets the רמ״א differently: the גבאי should privately find someone willing to accept the עלייה, and then call him up by name. The ביאור הלכה concedes that this is a דוחק in the simple reading of the רמ״א, but he prefers it to what he considers an invented formula. However, it appears that the חפץ חיים was unaware that in most of Western and Central Europe—particularly the Oberland communities of Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia—the established minhag was indeed to call out publicly: “יעמוד מי שירצה.” Had the חפץ חיים known this, it is very likely he would not have written “וגם אין נוהגין כן – לחדש ענין כזה.” He probably would have acknowledged the widespread minhag and agreed with the מחצית השקל that the correct practice is to announce “יעמוד מי שירצה.” This volunteer who stepped forward for the תוכחה was known as the “מי שירצה.” With this in mind, one can now understand the  מקור חיים ( Bachrach), who writes that מי שירצה has a chiyuv for an עלייה on the first days of Rosh Hashanah and Shavuos. In other words, the individual who accepted the burden of the תוכחה was rewarded with the honor of the first Yom Tov עלייה following the תוכחה readings of בחוקותי and כי תבוא—namely, Rosh Hashanah and Shavuos. Click here.