[Avodah] Consumer Alert: Minhog Scams On The Rise!

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Saul Z. Newman wrote:

> it's not clear to me the objective criterion on when to raise
> the threat of cherem, calumny etc  to new minhagim/practices.

My opinion is that these threats were rarely if ever used because there was any real problem with the new practices. More often it was simply a way of enforcing community standards, and a geder against people leaving Torah altogether.

> let me ask this. i know in some DL communities, the nusach
> haShatz is determined by the Shatz [ie nakdishach for shacharis
> may be followed by naaritzcha for mussaf].

I have seen this practice but I have very little understanding of it. To me it seems less like adoption of a new minhag, and more like an abdication of the old minhag.

On a practical basis, I wonder how it works at Mincha; do people pay close attention to the chatzi kaddish after Ashrei, to see whether the chazan says "v'yatzmach purkanei", so that they'll know whether to say "N'kadesh" or "Nakdishach" at Kedusha?

What happens on Sukkos, if an Ashkenaz chazan skips Hoshanos at shacharis, and then the Nusach Sfard chazan omits it at Musaf? (My guess is that these shul have a standard practice for such situations. But then isn't that a violation of the very procedure? Why not just go all the way?)

Moreover, when a child grows up in such a shul, what nusach does he consider his own?

My guess is that if any poskim actually endorse such a procedure, it is with the logic of the poskim who allow Kaddish Yasom to be said by many together. Namely, that there is no sense to it at all, but the only alternative is machlokes. How sad that we can't just be unified by whoever is the majority.

R"n Lisa Liel wrote:

> The idea of Ashkenazim and Sephardim living in the same building
> and maintaining separate halakhic minhagim is repulsive, and a
> false understanding of Judaism. ... Instead, people maintained
> ancestral minhagim while simultaneously mingling geographically,
> and split the nation in a way that Korah and his community would
> have been proud of.

Well put!

Akiva Miller

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