[Mesorah] FW: Psalm 145, Zecher vs. Zeicher

[Mandel, Seth]

Regarding the fuss made by the announcements before the leining: that was my recollection as well, and RYBS certainly did not make any announcements.  Of course, there never was any talking during q'rias haTorah there; Mr. Abe Levovitz z'l made sure of that.
I was in Chevron way back when only one year for Parshas Zokhor, and they also did not make announcements before the leining.
In regular shuls, they certainly did not.
Someone who was by R. Aharon in Lakewood said that he seems to remember that R. Aharon did.
At any event, it seems to me that the announcements that they make are a modern shtick, but I do not have enough data points to trace where and when they crept into all yeshivos and then into chareidi shuls.
Do they make these announcements nowadays in chassidishe shtieblach as well?

Rabbi Seth Mandel


-----Original Message-----
From: D&E-H Bannett [mailto:dbnet at zahav.net.il] 
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2012 9:01 AM
To: rabbi.rich.wolpoe at gmail.com; mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org; Rebbetzin Toby Katz; Mandel, Seth; sholom at aishdas.org
Cc: mesorah at lists.aishdas.org
Subject: Re: [Mesorah] FW: Psalm 145, Zecher vs. Zeicher

Re: <<One of the  shuls in W Hartford where I grew up did 
not make a big deal.  When I attended Ner Israel for Zachor 
1967 they did make a big deal...>>

I think that my youth was probably some time before yours. 
In my time as chuild in Flatbush, they did not make any fuss 
but just read the phrase twice without there being any 
commentary.

I believe that the big fuss in the yeshivas was fairly new 
when you went to Ner Israel. I say this based on my 
experience that the fuss has been developing gradually over 
the over sixty years that I live in Israel.

In the very many years I have been in our community shul in 
Kfar Haroeh there was little very little fuss until some ten 
or 15 years ago. Then, after a change in gabbaim, a new 
gabbai made an announcement before the kri'a. Before that, 
there were two or three ba'alei k'ri'a who alternated on 
reading parashat zakhor.  Each read according to his custom. 
I read the phrase twice,another read the entire pasuk twice. 
No pre-announcements and no comments or complaints from the 
kahal. Then, one year, a full-pasuk repeater walked over to 
me before reading zakhor and asked me what I thought about 
repeating.  An amazing question, as he had been in the 
community for some 20 years and knew what we did.  So I 
replied that if he read it correctly the first time I don't 
see a reason to repeat. If he read it incorrectly, he should 
certainly repeat to correct the error.  So, he read only 
once.  The many rabbanim and rosh yeshiva's in the shul made 
no comment but three baale batim did. One made a mehuma and 
announced that after mussaf he would read again for himself 
and those who wanted to be yotzei yedai chova. He did.  A 
year or two later, I spoke on Friday night to prove that 
there was no reason to read twice, The next morning I read 
zakhor twice (incorrect version first). To those who asked, 
I said that I thought it proper to read according to the 
custom I was taught and have always read in this shul, not 
necessarily what I think correct.  And then some four or 
five years ago,when gabbaim changed again, the new gabbai, a 
super baal k'ri'a, read himself and after reading with the 
usual Israeli pronunciation repeated with litvishe Ashkenazi 
pronunciation (each with repeated pasuk).  I complained to 
him, with a smile, that I felt hurt that he didn't read for 
me with a galizianer pronunciation. The following year, he 
read Israeli accent and Ashkenazi and then called a sefaradi 
to read with a North African accent and tune.  The next two 
years a Teimani was added. What will happen next year? 
While still feel it wrong that the galitzianer are being 
boycotted, I manage to live with it.


David