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<font size=3>At 03:42 PM 5/26/2011, R. Zev Sero wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">On 25/05/2011 7:21 PM, Prof.
Levine wrote:<br>
>> Upsherin is a generations-old minhag for many Ashkenazim.<br>
><br>
> What is your basis for this assertion?<br><br>
For one thing, it was practised by the Baal Shem Tov's talmidim at
least<br>
as long ago as 1748.</font></blockquote><br>
I fail to see how this is a basis for saying that "Upsherin is a
generation-old minhag for many Ashkenazim," given that Chassidus
changed many Ashkenaz minhagim for Sefardic minhogim. The switch in
nusach from Ashkenaz to Sefard is a prime example.<br><br>
I guess it depends upon how one defines Ashkenazim. Are those who
have abandoned many Ashkenazic minhagim for Sefardic minhagim or for
things rooted in kabbala really in the Ashkenaz camp? Is
someone who does not daven Nusach Ashkenaz to be considered
Ashkenaz? There is no question that such a person is not a
Sefardi in the following sense. From
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardi_Jews#Definition" eudora="autourl">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardi_Jews#Definition</a><br><br>
<font size=3>A <b>Sephardi Jew</b> is a Jew descended from, or who
follows the customs and traditions followed by, Jews who lived in the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iberian_Peninsula">Iberian
Peninsula</a> (modern
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain">Spain</a> and
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal">Portugal</a>) before
their expulsion in the late 15th century. This includes both the
descendants of Jews expelled from Spain under the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra_decree">Alhambra
decree</a> of 1492, or from
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal">Portugal</a> by order of
King <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_I_of_Portugal">Manuel
I</a> in 1497, and the descendants of
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-Jews">crypto-Jews</a> who
left the Peninsula in later centuries to North Africa, Asia Minor, the
Philippines and elsewhere around the world, and the descendants of
crypto-Jews who remained in Iberia. In modern times, the term has also
been applied to Jews who may not have been born Sephardi (or even Jewish)
but attend Sephardic synagogues and practice Sephardic traditions.
<br><br>
</font>Yet is he truly Ashkenaz? According to
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews#Definition" eudora="autourl">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews#Definition</a>
"<font size=3>The
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_is_a_Jew%3F">exact definition
of Jewishness</a> is not universally agreed uponneither by religious
scholars." And, "In a religious sense, an Ashkenazi Jew
is any Jew whose family tradition and ritual follows Ashkenazi
practice."<br><br>
</font>YL<br><br>
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