[Avodah] Minhag Avos and Sephardim

[Michael Makovi]

R' Rich Wolpoe asked about an alleged shita (held by some Sefaradim)
that there is no such thing as Minhag Avot, only haMakom. He
challenged this, based on al titosh torath imecha, and also
> If Sephardim subscribe to no minhag avos
> that would imply that following 1492 there were no more Sephardim born?
> Also minhag EY at time of GRA could not have been Sepharidc since all
> Spanish natives were long gone. Similar argument for America circa 1654.

I have no sources for anything, and I have no sevara for how to
explain al titosh, but the second challenge, I'll reply with a
non-mekor sevara for the anti-minhag-avot-ists:

When the Spanish left Spain in 1492 and spread across North Africa and
the Middle East, they were indeed no longer Spanish in the sense that
the Spanish minhag no longer applied to them, since they had left the
makom.

BUT, in their new homes, if they reestablished the old minhagim, then
it is a question of terminology; minhag haMakom of Morocco, Israel,
Tunisia, Turkey, Greece, whatever, would be a reproduction of minhag
haMakom of Spain.

Perhaps, then, in their new homes, had they put the matter up to a
vote, and asked whether or not to continue the old minhag haMakom of
Spain, they could have decided to drop that whole minhag and adopt a
new one. But once the new makom adopts the minhagim of the old makom,
the decision is done.

Personally, I'd argue that today, Ashkenazim and Sefaradim are no
longer bound by those minhagim; there is no minhag haMakom today, as
evidenced by the fact that a Sefaradi can eat kitniyot in full plain
view of Ashkenazim, without reprisal. Were there minhag haMakom, a
Sefaradi couldn't eat kitniyot in an Ashkenazi locale. But this is a
separate issue, I'm just opportunistically taking a moment on my
soapbox.

Michael Makovi