[Avodah] Minhag Avos and Sephardim

[Michael Makovi]

R' Micha said,
> I think the establishment of minhag takes consensus, not (as RMM
> suggests) majority. It's not a matter of formal vote, but eventually
> norms emerge.

I'd agree. I was overly simplistic, bombastic even, when I suggested
the formal vote. That's the problem with electronic communication;
tone of voice and gesticulations get lost. According to Wired, at
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/02/70179, people
understand each other's tones in email, FIFTY percent of the time. So
if you're not sure whether someone is angry or joking in an email,
rolling dice will serve you just as well.

The point is that I emphasize minhag haMakom over minhag Avot, and the
Spanish refugees (rather than carrying a minhag Avot that is
obligatory in any place irrespective of minhag haMakom, rather)
transplanted their minhagim to a new makom, and made the new makom's
minhag be the same as the old makom.

Thus, in America (and dati leumi communities in Israel), if everyone
is merely following minhag Avot, and there is no minhag haMakom, then,
in reality, everyone has a right to do whatever he pleases, as far as
minhag goes.

Of course, there may be minhag haMakom in some practices, and not in
others. Perhaps there is no minhag haMakom regarding kitniyot (thus,
the American Sefaradim aren't sinning), but there is indeed a minhag
haMakom to say the bracha for the State of Israel.

Michael Makovi