[Avodah] Simchas Torah is Really a Holiday for Bavel and not EY

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 10/15/2015 03:04 PM, Lisa Liel via Avodah wrote:
>>>
>> To my way of thinking there is a difference. The practices that the Jews
>> from Spain found in the countries they fled to were "relatively new. "
>
> I think this was only the case in places that didn't have a strongly
> established local custom. Jews who left Spain for Eastern Europe are
> Ashkenazim today.

Only if you mean "established" in the technical sense of government
authority.   All over the Mediterranean the Sefardim settled en masse
and rather than join the existing communities they founded their own,
with their own minhagim, and in many places (including EY) overwhelmed
the locals with their numbers.   That they didn't do this in Germany
and Eastern Europe may be because their numbers were lower, but I think
it more likely that it was because the existing kehillos were established
in the 1st amendment sense; the government recognised them, and did not
allow the practise of Judaism outside them.   (That's why, centuries
later, RSRH needed German law changed to permit austritt.)

-- 
Zev Sero               All around myself I will wave the green willow
zev at sero.name          The myrtle and the palm and the citron for a week
                And if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm doing that
                I'll say "It's a Jewish thing; if you have a few minutes
                I'll explain it to you".