Must someone be called to the Torah at all?

Question

A followup to this question.

One of the practices I have seen in this pandemic age is that one individual gets all the aliyot (often the one doing the laining). In that case, not only is there no question about who gets the next aliyah, but there needs to be no notification of it. Does each aliyah have to be announced in any form or can the reader just go from making the "closing bracha" for one aliyah right into making the "opening bracha" for his next aliyah? Is there some independent purpose or need for announcing the aliyah?

Answer 1

See Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 139:3:

אפילו ראש הכנסת או חזן לא יקרא עד שיאמרו לו קרא ונהגו ששליח צבור כשרוצה מברך וקורא בלי נטילת רשות משום דהוי כאלו משעה שמינוהו לש"ץ הרשוהו על כך: הגה ובמדינות אלו אין נוהגין כן ואין החזן עולה רק כשהסגן אומר לו לעלות אבל אין קורין לו בשמו כמו שאר העולים שקוראים אותם בשמם פלוני בר פלוני.

Even the president of the shul, or the chazan, shouldn't read from the Torah until they tell him to read. It is customary that the shliach tzibbur [i.e., baal korei] can say the berachos and read without being given permission, since it's as though he was implicitly given such permission when he was appointed.

Rema: This is not the practice in these [Ashkenazic] countries: the chazan [baal korei] doesn't get an aliyah unless the segan [gabbai] tells him to. However, he's not called by name like other olim, who are called up by name, "Ploni son of Ploni."

So yes, an oleh does need to be called up or given permission somehow, at least implicitly.