[Avodah] minhagim

[Eli Turkel]

A while ago there was a debate about gebrochs while some condemned the
minhag others defended it.

I suggest reading an article by Brown
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/hillel/1633fd7c1ed2a4a7

(4th on the list)
It is an English translation from his book on the Chazon Ish

Brown makes the argument that CI and much of litvishe gedolim in the recent
past
basically rejected minhagim as the practice of the masses. Only those
practices that can be
traced to the gemara or rishonim are acceptable. Even achronim except for a
select few don't count.
He further argues against the article by Haym Soloveitchik and claims that
the attitude of CI was already present in Russia before WWII and even
communities not affected by modernism. It was basically an attitude of
elitism that only gedolim count.

OTOH Hungarians led by Chasam Sofer strongly fought to preserve mighagim of
the kehilla. This was even more stressed by the Chassidic community. In
fact what distinguishes one chassidic group from the other ones is their
unique set of minhagim most of them fairly recent (last 100-200 years at
most)

His conclusion is that both approaches have their pluses and minuses in
terms of protecting their communities from modernism.
I conclude that the debate over gebrochs mirrors the debate between
litvaks and chassidim over the value of "recent" minhagim.

Again see the above article for more details


-- 
Eli Turkel
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