[Avodah] Waiting to Daven Maariv on Shavuous

[Prof. Levine]

At 09:03 AM 5/19/2009, Yitzhak Grossman wrote:
>Would you, then, write without qualification that: "One need not fast
>on the day of his wedding.  There are Poskim to rely on if one wants to
>eat"?  The point is that some Minhagim become accepted by certain
>communities, and members of those communities should not simply say "I
>won't bother following this custom; after all, many Poskim and other
>communities have not accepted it."
>
>Our custom of praying late on the first night of Shavuous is a
>legitimate custom, advocated by some major Aharonim, and followed in
>many communities.  Of course, someone from a community that does not
>have this custom need not follow it, but for those whose ancestors
>and / or current community did / does follow this custom, I do not
>think that it is legitimate to say "I don't need to comply, since it is
>an invention of the Aharonim, and a controversiol one at that."
>
>Yitzhak

 From what I see in the US, the idea of a unified community does not 
exist in most places. True, you find it amongst some groups of 
Chassidim, some groups of Sephardim, and in KAJ, but here in Flatbush 
I do not see such a thing in the places where I have davened.

In many shuls some put on tefillin during Chol Moed and others do 
not, and they daven in the same minyan. (A friend of mine told me 
that he davened in the Agudah in Baltimore on Chol Moed Pesach. There 
was a mechitza down the middle of the men's section with those 
wearing tefillin on one side and those not wearing them on the other 
side!}  I see some people putting on Rabbeinu Tam tefillin in shul 
every morning and others not doing this. To me this is not community.

The holding of Sefira is another example. Is there a Brooklyn minhag? 
Of course not. Again in the same shul one sees people holding 
different minhagim.

There are many other things like this. At a kiddush one sees some 
people making kiddush standing and others doing it while sitting.

Indeed, what I see more and more is a mish mash with people changing 
to this or that depending on who they happen to associate with.

So, aside from some well-known exceptions, I really do not see how 
one can refer to a community minhag.

YL
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