[Avodah] minhag to argue

[Jonathan Baker]

RnTK:
> My husband davened in a shul once where an argument erupted over whether to  
> do X or Y (something that comes up every year).  He asked them, "Don't you  
> remember what you did last year?  What is the minhag of the shul?"   They 
> replied, "The minhag of the shul is to argue about this every  year."

When I was in Park Slope, I almost saw this kind of thing develop.
There was one vowel in leining that each year became an argument 
between the rabbi and the baal kriah - a chataf-patach that was kinda
hard to pronounce as a patach, and generally slipped into a schwa.

The rabbi would stop the baal kriah and have him reread it as a patach;
the baal kriah, feeling he had done it right the first time, wouldn't want
to, which would draw others in checking chumash texts.  I think part of
the problem was that some chumashim had a plain patach (always ah), and
some had a chataf-patach.  And the baal-kriah, who was a dikduk-geek, 
knew that chataf-patach can be legally pronounced either as a patach or
as a schwa.

This argument happened 2-3 years in a row, then we moved away; I don't
know if the baal kriah has yet convinced the rabbi.

Also, if I have details wrong, I know he won't hesitate to correct me.

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     address: jjbaker at panix.com     blog: http://thanbook.blogspot.com