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The following is from
<a href="http://www.moreshesashkenaz.org/en/guide" eudora="autourl">
http://www.moreshesashkenaz.org/en/guide</a> (the English version)
page 26.<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Similarly to the
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Chasam
Sofer</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>, many other great
Torah sages recognized<br>
the significance of Minhag Ashkenaz. Its spokesmen enthusiastically<br>
praised it for many centuries and saw in the traditions of other lands
a<br>
veering from the authentic tradition. The Rambam, who was in a
position<br>
to judge Minhag Ashkenaz objectively, as he did not live in
Ashkenazic<br>
lands, wrote that the western Europeans were “unaffected by tainted<br>
practices and by the trends and paths that the current sages take. All
their<br>
ways agree with the Talmudic text.”<br><br>
</font>And from page 29<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Among those stands out the Sephardic
codifier, R’ Yosef<br>
Karo, who cites these words of the Rosh in their entirety without<br>
reservation in his </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Beis
Yosef</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>. The historical
background of the Rosh’s<br>
approach is provided by R’ Yakov Emden:<br><br>
The Ashkenazic Jews have a sturdy tradition, as the Rosh writes in<br>
his letter, more reliable than that of the Sephardim, even<br>
considering their known roots from the time of the exile from<br>
Jerusalem. They had their great sages in Babylonia, leaders and<br>
teachers such as R’ Moshe and his son R’ Chanoch, and from then<br>
on they produced more great Torah sages, but before that period<br>
they had been very empty. The Talmud had not reached them at all.<br>
However, Ashkenazic Jewry had yeshivos continuously, generation<br>
after generation, from the time of the Churban. They put their souls<br>
into the knowledge of the Torah and its observance, following its<br>
laws of justice and other halachos. Therefore, it is certain that
their<br>
correct knowledge of its details goes back farther.<br><br>
The Rosh made his statement in the context of personal experience, but
the<br>
Maharil endorsed it as a general ruling and used it in deciding the
halachah<br>
and teaching it to the public. In one of his letters, the Maharil writes,
“Our<br>
tradition is superior, as the Rosh writes in his letter....Therefore, let
us<br>
reject other traditions in deference to ours.”<br>
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