[Avodah] The influence of Nusach Sefard on Nusach Ashkenaz

[Prof. Levine]

At 09:57 AM 2/6/2008, you wrote:

>Two things that I see as areas where N"S has influenced N"A;
>
>Not wearing Tefillin on Chol HaMoed all together, taking the tefillin off
>before Musaf on Rosh Chodesh.
>
>Having more than one person say kaddish at the same time.

I daven Nusach Ashkenaz and I put on Tefillin on Chol Moed, although 
without a brocha.  This was the almost universal custom in Chutz 
L'Aretz, as far as I know. I know that the GRA and his followers did 
not put on Tefillin on Chol Moed. There may be some others. However, 
today, due to the Chassidization of Yiddishkeit, there are a number 
of people who have stopped putting on Tefillin during Chol Moed. Part 
of the reason may be that if one davens in a place where most do not 
put them on, then one feels uncomfortable about putting them on. (I 
am talking about a place where people do not put on Tefillin, but 
they allow some to do this.) Another reason may be sheer "laziness." 
It is easier not to put them on during Chol Moed.

I was told that in the Telz yeshiva in Cleveland, anyone who did not 
wear Tefillin during Chol Moed could not daven in the BM!

I heard Rabbi Bamberger of Sherushei Minhag Ashkenaz fame say at a 
talk that in the time of the Rishonim many did wear Tefillin during 
Musaf of RH. He said that the custom of taking them off before Musaf 
stems from the fact that the some places say Keser during kedusha and 
that one should not have two crowns.

There are still places where only one person says Kaddish. For 
example, at KAJ in Manhattan. My understanding is that the saying of 
kaddish by more than one person came about as a way of avoiding 
fights over who should say a given kaddish.  Where I daven the 
instituted a new thing about a year ago. All of those saying kaddish 
go to the Shulchan and say kaddish together. Rav P. M. Teitz 
instituted that all mourners should come to the front of the shul 
when they say kaddish. He did this some time between 1968 and 1974, 
while I was living in Elizabeth, NJ.