[Avodah] Shelo Asani Isha

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 12:41:55PM +0300, R Aryeh Frimer wrote:
: In Nefesh Harav, p. 107, Rav Hershel Schechter writes that the Rav
: said sheLo asani nochri (instead of goy). Dr. Arnie Lustiger cites
: this in his Mesoret HaRav Yamim Noraim Mahzorim. The Rav Davened quite
: loudly. If he regularly said SheAsani Yisrael, people would have known
: and publicized it.

As I noted, the Perushim also say "shelo asani nochri/ah". I am under the
impression that at least some hold this was nusach haGra.

RAFrimer is writing in reference to a claim made by R' Asher Lopatin at
<http://morethodoxy.org/2011/08/25/breaking-news-soloveichik-agrees-with-lopatin-accr/>
or <http://bit.ly/rrLDPO>.

As Garnel Ironheart (sorry, I can't put an "R" on a pseudonym, no matter
how much respect I have for the author) notes about the citation RAFrimer
is rebutting
<http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/2011/08/shelo-asani-ishah-issue.html?showComment=1314566584190#c5856064971894207738>:
    Actually I put up a couple of posts on this.

    From a good read of Rabbis Kanefsky and Lopatin it is very clear
    their halachic methodology is based on "I want this answer, therefore
    I will pick and choose those halachic positions I need to prove it
    even if i have to deliberately misunderstand them."

    Indeed Lopatin's most recent post claims the Rav himself is on his
    side when it comes to saying She'asani Yisrael and his proof is a
    letter written to him by a nephew of the Rav who spends the entire
    letter attacking his faulty methodology!
    ...

What RALopatin bases his post on is a quick PS at the end of R' Dr
Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik's (that's ben R' Moshe ben R' Aharon, ie a
grandnephew of RYBS's) letter:
    P.S. Here's a freebie for you. I believe I have heard from family
    members that the Rov said Shasani Yisrael.

He quotes the letter in full (at the URL given above), but apparently
ignores the main body in which RYZS criticizes that halakhah isn't done
that way.

So, even if we were to trust an "I believe from [other] family members",
an eid mipi eid made with equivocation, over the total silence of his
talmidim and congregants, including multiple minhagei haRav and nusach
haRav type collections, it still wouldn't endorse RALopatin's masqanah.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "And you shall love H' your G-d with your whole
micha at aishdas.org        heart, your entire soul, and all you own."
http://www.aishdas.org   Love is not two who look at each other,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      It is two who look in the same direction.