[Avodah] Using Non-Jewish Tunes For Mussaf of Rosh Hashanah?

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 03:04:54AM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
: R' Micha Berger wrote:
: > ... it was old even when he was born in 1365 or so. (And thus to
: > be considered minhag kedin.)

: Are you suggesting that there is a specific cut-off year for determining
: what counts as "minhag kedin"? Or even an approximate era?

I'm not suggesting anything. I'm telling you what the Maharil did.

It's a famous story. From Sefer Maharil, Hil' YK (tr R' Murray Singerman):
    Our teacher, Rabbi Yaakov Seigel [Maharil] said we do not change the
    custom of the place for any matter, including for melodies they are
    unaccustomed to sing. He told us the story about himself that once
    he was the prayer leader in the community of Ransburg for the High
    Holidays. He was using the melodies of the custom for the Austrian
    community, because that was the custom. He was bothered because they
    used for the Haftara the tune of the Reines community. He told us
    he recited on that day the penitential prayer, "I, I am the One who
    speaks," which R. Ephraim set up to recite in Musaf. He thought it
    was a mitsva to say it there for the honor of R. Ephraim, the author,
    who is buried there. The leaders of the community said it was not
    their custom to say that penitential prayer. Because of [R. Yaakov's]
    desire to honor R. Ephraim, he did not listen [to the leaders of the
    community]. A year later, [R. Yaakov's] daughter died on Yom Kippur.
    The Rav's statement [above that we do not change the custom of the
    place for any matter] was shown to be just, for his daughter was
    stricken, because he changed the custom of the place.

And so the Rama summarizes in OC 619:1. The MA says the problem is that
changing the tune will confuse the tzibur. The Gra holds the problem is
that it opens the door for machloqes. See also the MA in 68:1.

I believe the notion of miSinai is not that there is a cut-off year for
minhagim, although some Yekkes sometimes talk like the Maharil's era
defines True Minhag Ashkenaz. Rather, that minhagim get more binding with
age (RRW would liken this to peer review). There is some age at which a
minhag is as binding as din, and the Maharil held this was true for the
MiSinai tunes.

See R' Chazan Sherwood Goffin's essay on MiSinai tunes in general and
on Yamim Noraim in particular at
<http://www.yutorah.org/togo/roshhashana/articles/Rosh_Hashanah_To-Go_-_5770_Cantor_Goffin.pdf>
(or <http://bit.ly/fsVoeb>). He notes that what is usually canonized into
minhag is not the specific melody, but what he calls the 3 "M"s: Mode (the
type of scale and motif), Mood (don't use a dance tune for Av haRachamim),
and Min haQodesh. His discussion of this third criterion adds a source I
don't recall seeing on this thread yet -- Chagiga 15b says that Acher's
divergence from mesorah started with "zemer Yevanei lo pasaq mipumeih".
So should we be comfortable singing zemer Yevani at all? And what is
zemer Yevani? Might be as hard to pin down as chokhmah Yevanis.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I always give much away,
micha at aishdas.org        and so gather happiness instead of pleasure.
http://www.aishdas.org           -  Rachel Levin Varnhagen
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