[Avodah] What is the source for the minhag of Chasidim to have HaKafos on Shmini Atzeres night?

[Micha Berger]

In v3n17, RSBA (R Shlomo Abelesz, to help the newbies) wrote two posts on the
subject:
: [Nitei Gavriel] also quotes the Chida being strngly against these hakafos

So they got established by the early to mid-18th century. That gives us a 200
year window, from the Ari to the Chida. But li nir'eh it's toward the latter
part of that window, as the Chida writes as though he's trying to stop the
practice from being canonized as minhag, implying it was new.


In the second post RSBA writes:
: To have even a hava amina that the "basis" of a minhag practised by
: tzadikim and kedoshim and thousands of their followers over centuries
: is "due to a mistake in transcription" is ludicrous and mischievous.

It's not so rare.

For example (learned from RGDubin back in v4, 2000ce), the Torah Temima's
(since disproven) theory about the origin of saying "migdol" in bentching on
Shabbos. He writes that the original note was to contrast the text of
bentching with that in Shemu'el beis, and therefore read "besh"b 'migdol'".
Somone then expanded the rashei teivos to "beShabbos" and so the minhag was
allegedly born.

(WADR to the TT, the theory doesn't work because the Avudraham mentions the
practice, and he didn't know about a future splitting of Shemu'el by people in
another part of the world.)

See the mavo to haAqov leMishor by R' Dovid Cohen for more examples. If RDC
does it, why can't Yaari?

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
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