[Avodah] unity

[Eli Turkel]

Again, where do we see a basis for considering the current mixture of
minhagim in a single city being anything more than a bedi'eved? And
why aren't we looking to accelerate the process of unifying?>>

I think there are 2 levels of lechatchila:

1. In an ideal world minhag hamakom wins and there is only 1 minhag
determined by the Sanhedrin (or perhaps 1 for each tribe)

2. Given the present status the lechatchila is for each community to follow
minhag avot. There is no basis to impose unity. In Israel they tried a
common nusach that was some combination of all the variations and it was
rejected by almost all gedolim. Rav Arusa wrote his PhD advocating a unified
minhag (based mainly on his Yeminite-Rambam background) which also got
nowhere. In EY there are few generally accepted country-wide minhagim by
they are rare. Though I have not made a study I suspect that this occurred
when the Gra and/or Shulchan Arukh haRav agreed with Sefardi psak against
the Ramah. For example not wearing tefillin on chol hamoed or saying
She-he-chiyanu at a Brit Milah.

-- 
Eli Turkel
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