[Mesorah] S. Baer on Shelo Assani Nochri

[Zev Sero]

On 19/03/2012 1:27 PM, R. Rich Wolpoe wrote:
> I fail to see how changing GOY to NOCHRI consitutes a more "egregious" change than Rabbenu Tam inserting Lanu

As REMT pointed out, the change was in the body of the bracha, not in
the siyum.  As in the case of Shmoneh Esrei, the body of the bracha is
not so important, and one may change it.  In the case of SE, AKHG didn't
set down a fixed body for each bracha; they only dictated the topic and
the beginning and end, and left it to each ShaTz to elaborate on the
topic as he wished. So it's no wonder that when the Ge'onim decided to
finally write a fixed siddur various versions came down to us.  Changes
in the siyum are more serious, which is why we have so few differences
among the nuscha'os, and those we have are controversial.

-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon