[Avodah] minhag

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 2:33pm IST, R Eli Turkel wrote:
: 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.

But not every communal practice is a minhag. So yes, minhagim are
inherently dynamic. But there are limits on valid ways for them to
change. Just as there is a minhag shtus when it comes to the creation of
a new minhag, there is when it comes to repealing it. (Which after all,
just the creation of an alternative minhag of sheiv ve'al ta'aseh.)

...
: 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...

And as we saw in previous iterations, the implication from pereq Maqom
sheNahagu, this is also the ideal.

But the nature of the modern world is such that rarely move to places
that have a single minhag hamaqom. And so minhag avos plays a greater
role in practice that at other times in history. This is usually the
point in the iteration where I ask if anyone knows of sources from
the early days of Ashkenaz, when minhag Ashkenaz was first coalescing,
if there is any indication how /they/ handled this challenge.

(Difference is, there isn't another couple of centuries left before
mashiach and a Sanhedrin totally upend the halachic process. They had
time for a minhag hamaqom to coalesce that we won't.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It's never too late
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