[Avodah] minhag

[Eli Turkel via Avodah]

<<You'll be unsurprised to learn that R Gil Student has a well laid-out
discussion of rolling back minhagim. Starting with a taxonomy of
kinds of minhagim (by type, by scope, by source). He doesn't discuss your
"why", but it's well worth a read
<http://www.torahmusings.com/2015/08/how-to-undo-a-minhag>.
He in turn is basing himself on R' Baruch Simon's Imerei Barukh: Tokef
haMinhag baHalkhah, ch 3-5. >>

I have a major problem with the whole topic. Minhag by definition is a
custom that an individual or community does. Almost by definition it is
dynamic. If one read through Sperber's series on minhagim one will find
loads of customs that no longer exist.

>From the article
However, according to the *Pri To’ar*, there is also a concept of a family
custom. Even if you move to a place with an established custom, you still
have to follow your family customs. Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv rules this
way.

In practice, if one moves to a community with a different minhag the family
custom disappears within a generation or two. This was certainly the case
in the past. One finds many ashkenazi Jews with distinctly sefardi names
and vice versa. Their ancestors moved sometime in the distant past and over
time became part of the new community and old customs mostly disappeared.

 In Israel the large majority of shuls daven nusach sefard even though the
congregants are not descendants of chassidim. In Jerusalem many shuls daven
nusah haGra even though they are not descendants of talmidei haGra.  These
is what kids learn in school and thats what they do as adults. As Prof.
Levine points out there are a few shuls that keep the old German minhagim
and scattered places that insist on nusach ashkenaz (though including
ein kelokenu and other sefard additions) but these are the small minority.
Many have given up on gebrochs (though popular in hotels).
I would assume that with the many "mixed" marriages that the children grow
up with a mixture of ashkenaz and sefard customs.

In the past it was common in many families to fast on mondays and thursdays.
This is rarely done today even for behab. Many grandmothers said prayers in
yiddish like
"Gut fum Avraham" which have become lost. As I already p[ointed out piyutim
changed over the generations.

as another example see

http://matzav.com/the-forgotten-fast-day-20-sivan/
abbreviated

The *Shach*, was the first *rov* to institute a fast day on the 20th of
*Sivan* in commemoration of the “*Gezeiros Tach V’Tat*”  It would seem,
that he had prescribed the fast day only for his family and descendants.
This would explain why, in 1652, the Council of the Four Lands also
declared a fast on 20 *Sivan*; they were establishing one for the public at
large. A very moving dirge commemorating the tragedy was also written by
Rav Yom Tov Lipman Heller,which was published in Cracow, 1650,. In it, he
lists by name twelve of the almost three-hundred communities that were
totally decimated during the massacres. It begins with the standard “*Keil
Malei Rachamim*,” but then becomes very original and deserves proper
historical attention.

Today both the fast and the special keil malei rachamim have disappeared.
In summary the history of real minhagim don't follow the neat rules of the
article.

-- 
Eli Turkel
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