[Avodah] Hallel in Shul on Pesach night - The Ashkenaz Minhag to refrain

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 06:10:11PM +0300, Ben Waxman wrote:
> My wife told me that at Maimonides (where the Rav davened) they did/do 
> say Hallel at night. I wonder if he did this based on the tradition of 
> the Gra.

Interestingly, though, the blog entry cites the Griz as leaving the room
when caught in a minyan that said Hallel at night.

I don't think it's likely to have been minhag haGra, in the literal sense.
As RRW has often pointed out, in the Gra's day, minhagei haGra were
uniquely the Gra's. His talmidim didn't veer from Litvisher norms until
have their rebbe's petirah.

A minhag that would involve a minyan of other Vilna-ites would therefore
be unlikely to become a minhag haGra. And if he said it beyechidus, why
would it have been in shul?

That's, aside from the fact that -- as the "Treasures of Ashkenaz"
blog entry noted -- it's not in Maaseh Rav.

RBW's evidence does appear to weaken the blogger's claim that it was
due to talmidei haGra's exposure to Sepharadim in Israel. It has to be
tracable to the Gra's students who weren't in the yishuv hayashan as well.

More likely, LAD, is that the Gra gave a strong sevara for doing so, such
that it became minhag talmidei haGra before a subset of them made aliyah.

:-)|,|ii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I long to accomplish a great and noble task,
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