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Mar 10, 2011

The Sefardi Dressed As The Ashkenazi

It looks like Rav Ovadiah's dream is coming true. Israel's community of Jews is adopting one set of minhagim.

I always wondered about when minhagim begin and when they end. A person can be living in a city, and continue to not act in accordance with local minhagim, because his family minhagim from previous generations takes precedence. Why do the minhagim from Poland, Germany, Russia, Morocco,or wherever, from 100, 200, 500 years ago, take precedence over local community minhagim. At what point does a local minhag override an old family minhag?

A result of this is that we have communities with multiple minhagim - everyone does his own thing. Rav Ovadiah has spoken out many times about the overriding minhag in Eretz Yisrael should be the sefardic minhagim as per Rav Yosef Karo. While he has said that people with minhagim should/could continue with their own minhagim, if someone is taking a new minhag, it should be in accordance with minhag eretz yisrael according to Rav Karo.

So we are coming close to that day, where the community in Israel will be living according to one set of minhagim. Unfortunately, for Rav Ovadiah, is that it seems that the sefardic rabbonim are en masse moving to the ashkenazi minhagim, rather than the other way around. If they themselves were doign so, that would be one thing, but they are also pushing their students to follow suit.

the past week we have seen a sefardi rosh yeshiva pressure a student to perform his wedding according to the ashkenazi custom, and then we saw another who acted similarly regarding kashrus (though he compromised o another sefardi hechsher).

Now another incident has happened in this vein. At least this time the rosh yeshiva preempted the wedding, by dealing with it in advance. Kikar has the story of a sefardi rosh yeshiva who went to a boy who would be getting married very shortly, and handed him a frock and told him that if he will not wear the frock at the wedding, the rosh yeshiva will refuse to come.

Furthermore, he then established a set of customs for his yeshiva, customs that every boy getting married must adhere to. The new rules are:

  1. the chosson must wear a frock
  2. they must go to the yichud room right after the chuppa
  3. he can only marry a woman who will wear a sheitel (rather than cover the hair with a tichel)
  4. they must hire the photographer through the yeshiva office, and no video is allowed.
As an aside, I wonder how long she has to wear a sheitel for - if after 6 months she decides to go with the tichel, is the wedding annulled? After 2 years? 10 years?

I dont know if this trend is good or bad. It is strange that suddenly this is happening. In today's day and age, ethnicism is in. I would have expected today that they would be more proud, and would promote, their own heritage. 

12 comments:

  1. It is strange that suddenly this is happening. In today's day and age, ethnicism is in.

    You're talking about what the goyim are doing, not frumme yidden.

    That she has to wear a sheitl?! Charedi elementary school takanon overrides Sefardi psak!

    Reminds me of a story I heard of an imminently-engaged couple in their 50's - she asked a big Rav regarding his Lubavitch tendencies. The Rav said unless he agrees to sleep in the sukkah (i.e. against Lubavitch minhag), don't marry him. She called it off.

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  2. maybe it was his "nice" way of saying not to marry a Lubavitcher..

    Do you know where that story happened? They could have moved to a cold climate, like Chicago or many other places, and sleeping in the sukka would not have been an impediment to the shidduch.

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  3. The issue of the sheitel seems to be aimed at dividing Rabbonim; there are many that gave a peak NOT to wear a sheitel (and these are also for the shawl), and then the other side that says yes, only a sheitel (against the shawl).

    Needs more delving, but I think this is the core issue.

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  4. Absolutely it was to force the Lubavitch issue, that at least he would need to "mainstream" somewhat. Because you're right there are many who don't sleep in the sukkah due to comfort issues. If I recall correctly they were visiting Israel but from the US.

    Neshama I hadn't thought of that - that there are also Ashkenazim who have stopped wearing sheitls. But doesn't it seem like an attack on Sefardi minhagim?

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  5. I'm just curious what kind of kickback they Yeshiva is getting from photographers.

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  6. The Shasnikim who supposedly want to "restore the crown of glory" to the Sefaradim continue to send their most gifted sons to Litvishe yeshivas. They shouldn't be surprised if their Rosh Yeshiva wants to conduct the wedding according to Ashkenazi psak.BTW cheder yichud for example is a matter of halacha, not minhag.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Shasnikim who supposedly want to "restore the crown of glory" to the Sefaradim continue to send their most gifted sons to Litvishe yeshivas. They shouldn't be surprised if their Rosh Yeshiva wants to conduct the wedding according to Ashkenazi psak.BTW cheder yichud for example is a matter of halacha, not minhag.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The Shasnikim who supposedly want to "restore the crown of glory" to the Sefaradim continue to send their most gifted sons to Litvishe yeshivas. They shouldn't be surprised if their Rosh Yeshiva wants to conduct the wedding according to Ashkenazi psak.BTW cheder yichud for example is a matter of halacha, not minhag.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Shasnikim who supposedly want to "restore the crown of glory" to the Sefaradim continue to send their most gifted sons to Litvishe yeshivas. They shouldn't be surprised if their Rosh Yeshiva wants to conduct the wedding according to Ashkenazi psak.BTW cheder yichud for example is a matter of halacha, not minhag.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The Shasnikim who supposedly want to "restore the crown of glory" to the Sefaradim continue to send their most gifted sons to Litvishe yeshivas. They shouldn't be surprised if their Rosh Yeshiva wants to conduct the wedding according to Ashkenazi psak.BTW cheder yichud for example is a matter of halacha, not minhag.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Quite interesting.

    In a way, it is sad.

    One could say (derech drash) though that they are following Rav Ovadia and minhog Eretz Yisroel, except that they are not agreeing with him that minhag Eretz Yisroel is necessarily according to Maran, the Mechaber. A case can be made that minhag Eretz Yisroel is minhag Ashkenaz or other derochim. There are different shitos on the matter. I wrote about it earlier, today, http://treasuresofashkenaz.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/minhag-eretz-yisroel-what-is-it-who-is-the-mara-deasra-in-eretz-yisroel-מיהו-המרא-דארעא-קדישא/

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've said it before and I'll say it again. When the Sefardim came to Israel, the chilonim cut their simanim (peyos) off. Later on, the Ashlenazy charedim cut their ba**s off :-)

    Shabbat Shalom all!

    ReplyDelete

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