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<font size=3>At 09:03 AM 5/19/2009, Yitzhak Grossman wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Would you, then, write without
qualification that: "One need not fast<br>
on the day of his wedding. There are Poskim to rely on if one wants
to<br>
eat"? The point is that some Minhagim become accepted by
certain<br>
communities, and members of those communities should not simply say
"I<br>
won't bother following this custom; after all, many Poskim and other<br>
communities have not accepted it."<br><br>
Our custom of praying late on the first night of Shavuous is a<br>
legitimate custom, advocated by some major Aharonim, and followed in<br>
many communities. Of course, someone from a community that does
not<br>
have this custom need not follow it, but for those whose ancestors<br>
and / or current community did / does follow this custom, I do not<br>
think that it is legitimate to say "I don't need to comply, since it
is<br>
an invention of the Aharonim, and a controversiol one at
that."<br><br>
Yitzhak</blockquote><br>
From what I see in the US, the idea of a unified community does not
exist in most places. True, you find it amongst some groups of Chassidim,
some groups of Sephardim, and in KAJ, but here in Flatbush I do not see
such a thing in the places where I have davened. <br><br>
In many shuls some put on tefillin during Chol Moed and others do not,
and they daven in the same minyan. (A friend of mine told me that he
davened in the Agudah in Baltimore on Chol Moed Pesach. There was a
mechitza down the middle of the men's section with those wearing tefillin
on one side and those not wearing them on the other side!} I see
some people putting on Rabbeinu Tam tefillin in shul every morning and
others not doing this. To me this is not community.<br><br>
The holding of Sefira is another example. Is there a Brooklyn minhag? Of
course not. Again in the same shul one sees people holding different
minhagim. <br><br>
There are many other things like this. At a kiddush one sees some people
making kiddush standing and others doing it while sitting. <br><br>
Indeed, what I see more and more is a mish mash with people changing to
this or that depending on who they happen to associate with. <br><br>
So, aside from some well-known exceptions, I really do not see how one
can refer to a community minhag.<br><br>
YL </font></body>
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