[Avodah] L'Dovid Hashen Ori

[Dov Kay]

RTK wrote:<<Just because one person finds some indications that the custom may have been of Sabbatean origin doesn't mean that he's right, or that you should stop a custom that by now is so widespread in Klal Yisrael.  An individual should not set himself up as a higher authority or bigger tzaddik than everybody else, unless he hears that some of the biggest gedolim and poskim stopped saying l'Dovid Hashem Ori for that reason,  or he really is a big posek himself,  or has been told to do so by his own posek or rav. >> I disagree.  First, as has been pointed out, the source for reciting L'Dovid in Elul/Tishrei is the book Chemdat Yamim.  R. Yaakov Emdem attributed this work to Nathan of Gaza, who is a Sabbatean ideologue, and modern scholars have generally confirmed this attribution.  So, by not saying this perek, I am following one set of poskim against others.   Second, most of the poskim I have access to, for all their brilliance, are not bibliographers or historians, and therefore lack the background knowledge to make a judgement as to the origins of this custom.  They are more likely to adopt a dismissive attitude to scholarly research than I do, and I cannot in good faith accept their attitude in this regard.  Also, they do not have a great interest in minhagim, as opposed to technical halacha.  The same applies to dikduk.  I know at least one great talmid chacham in town who is only yotze k'rias sh'ma bediavad, because he does not distinguish between sh'va na and sh'va nach.  I esteem his knowledge in broader halacha and rely on his p'sak in questions of issurei kares, but when it comes to dikduk and minhagim, he's not your man.  It has nothing to do with who is a bigger tzaddik.  Tzidkus doesn't come into it.  I'm sure there are other poskim, but I don't know them. Third, there is a fundamental difference between questions of halacha and those of minhag (although I concede that the line between them is frequently blurred).  It is well known that RYBS made many shinuim to nusach hatefillah, but told his talmidim not to change their own minhagim, except in a few cases where he felt that the nusach was halachically incorrect (eg. the chasima oseh hashalom in aseres yemei teshuva).  The Rav didn't expect his talmidim to ask him which nusach to follow.  It's simply not a question you need to ask a posek. Fourth, I share RMB's prejudice against the ritualisation of yiddishkeit, and bolting on yet another addition to the original nusach hatefillah just feeds this phenomenon, not least by making davenen even longer than it was originally intended to be, which means that everything, including the really important bits, get rushed and garbled. Finally, I suppose I incline more toward RMB's approach in these matters, of not following customs which offend my sechel (eg kaporos, machnisei rachamim in selichos, bor'chuni l'shalom, etc).  As someone not brought up with customs from home, I supppose I feel myself freer than some to pick and choose.  On the other hand, where my sechel doesn't push me one way or the other, I try to follow minhagei Lita (my paternal yichus) with a Yekke slant.  I maintain my cheilom (as against the prevailing choylom) because that is the way my grandfather said it, even though I know that scholars do not invest this pronunciation with authenticity.  However, seeing that no other pronunciation can be confirmed absolutely as authentic, I see no reason to change.  I think your focus on tzidkus in this context is not only mistaken, but - even worse - chassidic  :-).  To my mind, sechel and minhag Avos trump the prescriptions of charismatic tzaddikim any day. At the end of the day, none of this matters that much.  It is Elul, and I think we all know what's really important. Kol tuvDov Kay 
 
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