[Avodah] Consumer Alert: Minhog Scams On The Rise! Mislabeled, Cheap Middle Eastern Imports Flooding In, Threatening To Overwhelm Natives!

[Prof. Levine]

 From http://tinyurl.com/3uuyha3


One of the more difficult challenges we face in keeping the holy 
minhogim of our Ashkenazic ancestors is posed by present day 
unrestricted imports from Eretz Yisroel, of Sepharadic minhagim 
posing as Ashkenazic ones.

With so much travel these days between Eretz Yisroel and the diaspora 
lands, instant worldwide communication, so many youngsters as well as 
more mature students studying in the Holy Land, and massive amounts 
of Judaica produced in and exported from there, we are faced with a 
virtual invasion of foreign customs.

<Snip>

So first and foremost, people have to be alerted about this dangerous 
phenomenon. And then hopefully they will take steps to counter this 
dangerous fad, and reject the foreign adulterated customs, " .

I will list here a few examples of such dangerous foreign imports, 
the mislabeled practices that need to be exposed for what they are, 
Sepharadic minhagim posing as Ashkenazic minhogim. Some of them have 
been written about previously, while others will perhaps " will be 
the subjects of future posts.

1) Chalaka (a word of Arabic origin), also known as Upsherin in Yiddish.

2) Bonfires and other questionable Lag Baomer activities.

3) Expanded version of the last part of Rosh Chodesh Bentching <snip>

4) Kaddish after Krias HaTorah being given to any aveil, rather than 
being said by the baal Kriah, as per the classical minhog.

5) Cheap Judaica trinkets, e.g. Sepharadic/Oriental 
<http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%95%D7%95%D7%99%D7%AA%D7%99>Shivisis 
and <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsa>Hamsas. The former are 
sometimes purchased by well meaning people and given to Shuls, where 
sometimes unwittingly they are accepted and hung, usually at the 
amud, despite being against Ashkenazic practice. The latter may be 
hung or worn by individuals.

6) Finger pointing (pinky or other) at the sefer Torah during hagbah. 
The minhag Ashkenaz is to bow toward the sefer Torah then, an earlier 
recorded minhog mentioned in the Shulchan Aruch, a gesture of 
reverence and respect toward the holy Torah. But now one sees quite a 
few people in some places doing the easier finger pointing which 
lacks the type of giving of kavod to the Torah that bowing shows.

7) Hallel in Shul on Pesach night. Minhag Ashkenaz is only to say it 
at the seder later.

People have to be aware of this serious problem, take a stand, and 
refuse to go along with the adulteration of our holy Ashkenazic 
heritage, which happens when people accept such customs.

See the above URL for the entire article.

Yitzchok Levine