[Avodah] community minhag

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 05:58:44AM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
> Community plays a large role in halacha (ex. community minhagim,
> rabbinic leadership acceptance of Shabbat, responsibility to
> educate...) Historically these started out geographically defined but seem
> to have morphed to include family, prior culture, geography etc. Given
> the proliferation of virtual communities will virtual community membership
> also be a factor in halachic determinations?

I think minhag is by definition regional, because the idea is that one
isn't exposed to conflicting practices. See Pesachim 51a -- when you
permanently move, you are supposed to adopt the local minhag.

So ther would be no role for family and prior culture minhagim. If it
weren't for the fact that we've been moving around a lot since WWI, to
the point that the new locale almost always does not have a regional
minhag to switch to.A They are only now emerging. Things like Yekkes
who no longer only wait 3 hours, or Litvaks making upsherins. The rise
of kesarim on the shins on the bayis of a shel rosh. And somehow every
year it seems that there are fewer and fewer of us wearing tefillin on
ch"m. Etc... (Athough be"H the process of a Minhag America coalescing
should be halted bimheira beyameinu, amein!")

I think something similar happened when different communities converged on
Ashkenaz, and a single Minhag Ashkenaz evolved out of a mix of Provencial,
Italian and other existng minhagim

However, the notion of shelo yaasu agudos agudos does have new meaning
in the current culture.

For example, telecommunications means that you know about other locales'
minhagim by video, and it's not just some exotica we know about only by
rumor. Does it mean that "maqom" in "minhag hamaqom" should be considered
globally?

I don't think the RBSO wants only one way of practicing. If He did -- why
would He have divided us into shevatim, giving each sheivet its own
locale and its own batei dinim?

A second effect... In Israel, they found that  shul having the nusach of
"whatever the baal tefillah is most at home with" causes less fighting than
sayin "this bet keneset is Nusach X". We don't form agudos agudos over
having to be around people who do things very differently (except for
the few holdout True Misnagdim, I guess) as much as we do over being in
the minority forced to conform. What does that do to minhag?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 "I think, therefore I am." - Renne Descartes
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   "I am thought about, therefore I am -
Author: Widen Your Tent      my existence depends upon the thought of a
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    Supreme Being Who thinks me." - R' SR Hirsch