[Avodah] Simchas Torah is Really a Holiday for Bavel and not EY

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

R' Yitzchok Levine asked:

> And indeed this has been my question all along. Why did
> the Jews when they returned to EY adopt the "Golus"
> practice of reading the Torah yearly as was done in
> Bavel? Why didn't they go back to the original practice
> of EY?

Someone once said that if one can phrase his question properly, then he's
already done half the work of solving it. In the current case, I think the
question is hard to answer because it includes a mistaken premise.

You begin by referring to the Jews who "returned to EY". Where were they,
prior to this return? Where were they, when they did this return? Were they
in Eretz Yisrael? I doubt it.

Surely, the Jews of whom you speak did not grow up in Eretz Yisrael. They
grew up somewhere else. Presumably, somewhere in "Golus".

If so, then they did NOT "adopt" this "Golus" practice, nor any other. All
they did was to *continue* the practices that they grew up with.

What they might have done - but did not do - was to adopt the practices of
the Jews who had previously lived there. Why do you think they should have
done that? Do you know of other examples where a community moved to a new
area, and adopted the practices of Jews who had lived there once upon a
time?

R' Micha Berger suggested that according to RYL's reasoning, EY ought to
pasken like the Gemara Yerushalmi in areas where the Bavli differs. RYL
responded:

> There apparently was an established Nusach Ha Tefillah
> in EY as well as for other things. It seems to me that
> this is what they should have gone back to and not
> further.

You are certainly entitled to our opinion, but if you hope to sway anyone
else, your argument should be more substantial than merely how it "seems
to" you.

Akiva Miller
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