[Avodah] minhag avos

[rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]

Dov Kaiser:
> Another factoid: I recently heard from a Dutch oleh who made aliyah
> decades back that he asked R. Shaul Yisraeli whether he should continue
> to wait only 1 hour after meat. R. Yisraeli answered that, since he
> was not affiliated with a kehilla of Jews who followed this custom, he
> should abandon it in favour of the 6 hour wait. This is interesting,
> because the waiting period after meat is not a shul-specific custom,
> like nusach hatefillah.

First every case is different
I know several Ashkenazi Jews who adopted Sephardic customs copletely,
and in fact afaik they both have Sephardic S'micha.
And as rabbis they practice that way in communities that are largely
devoid of Sephardim!

I don't know all the parameters of changing minhag. [Frankly, the only
poseiq I personally have trusted was R Shimon Schwab ZT"L who knew both
the Yekke and Yeshivishe sides equally well.]

Consider this:
An individual immigrant comes to Holland. AISI he typically chucks minhag
avos in favor of minhag hammaqom

And this:
An oleh. To EY - though this is trickier because Minhag EY comes in many
flavors [EG edot mizrach, GRA, Hassidic, etc.]

Now let's say an immigrant is in a "mixed community" and steadfastly
clings to Minhag Avos - what then?

EG
IIRC the Clanton Park Shul in Metro Toronto circa 1970 was about evenly
divided between Litvaks, Hungarians, and Yekkes. What if a Teimani
migrated there?

Bottom Line AISI:
To me the iqqar is consistency [like humros of BH vs. BS]
Take a system and stick to it as best as one can. And always conform
to the nusach of the shul whilst davening aloud
[Either for the amud or whilst responding aloud]

KT
RRW
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