Interesting Psak: Ashkenazi Minhag HaMakom

Recently we have heard in the news a number of stories of specific minhogim being enforced in yeshivas on boys who have their own, different customs.

The really strange situations are when the yeshiva is sefardi but enforces ashkenazi customs, as an attempt to look more ashkenazi and attract "better" students. However, while those situations were recently in the news a few times, those are not the only minhag-changing situations happening.

Kikar is reporting that the rosh yeshova of an ashkenazi yeshiva went to Rav Elyashiv to ask about the sefardic students in his majority-ashkenazi yeshiva, and what customs they should be keeping.

When I went to yeshiva, everybody kept their own minhogim, and everybody accepted what everyone else was doing, and all was good. In yeshiva high school I wore a tallis as a yekke, along with a couple other boys, while a few guys wore gartels, and a few sefardim wore tallis and shaved during the "Three Weeks". Everybody did their own thing, and everybody got along just fine.

In yeshiva as well, in the yeshiva I learned at in Israel, there were plenty of sefardim, along with representatives of numerous European backgrounds and customs. Again, everybody did their own minhag, and nobody cared. It did not bother me to see a sefardi boy shave during the Three Weeks, and it did not bother them to see me only say one week of selichos in Elul while they had to get up early for a month and go to a local sefardi minyan.

Not only did we all [mostly] get along and live together [mostly] harmoniously, but it was probably beneficial to all to see that other people did things differently and we could all still get along and respect each other.

The Shailoh

So, this rosh yeshiva goes to Rav Elyashiv and asks a shailoh about the sefardi boys in his yeshiva. He asks if he should allow them to each do according to their own minhag, and allow sefardi students to shave during the Three Weeks, or should he insist that they keep the minhag of the majority of the yeshiva and not shave during the Three Weeks.

Interesting Psak from Rav Elyashiv

Rav Elyashiv reportedly responded that the sefardi boys have to accept the minhag of the ashkenazim as that is the majority in the yeshiva, and they should not shave during the Three Weeks. Rav Elyashiv's reason was that the ashkenazi yeshiva with it's own minhogim is considered it's own place, and when one goes to a different location, he must keep the minhogim of the local place. Furthermore, one who does not adapt and  keep the local minhogim but insists on shaving, is a poretz geder and should be treated with a heavy hand.

Yeshiva Minhogim

Besides for the psak itself and it's ramifications, this psak is interesting to me because it assumes the yeshiva has such established uniform minhogim. The only "yeshiva minhogim" I remember from yeshiva days were certain davening issues, nusach the chazzan would use, scheduling issues, and the like. I don't remember ever seeing minhogim that are more personal in nature taking on any semblance of uniformity.

I even remember that when it was time to light candles on Channukah, there were some boys who lit at sunset, and some who lit at tzeis. There was no such thing as the yeshiva minhag on such personal issues. People acted in accordance with their own minhagim, and everybody accepted that. This psak now says the yeshiva has official minhogim even in the personal realm, and everyone must adhere.