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Jun 5, 2016
Different pronunciation causes aron kodesh to be locked up
Here is a news story that has me wondering why it is a news story.
In Kiryat Yearim a Sefardi went up to lead the services in a specific ashkenazi minyan because nobody else present wanted to. He davened with his sefardi pronunciation, though he led the services according to the asheknazi nusach of the shul.
The gabbai at some point decided this was unacceptable and against the custom of the shul and he went and locked the aron kodesh and said he would only reopen it when they would find someone willing to lead and read form the torah using the ashkenaz pronunciation.
source: INN
I am left wondering why this is a news story at all. There are many shuls that will not allow a chazzan to lead the services, or a baal kria to read from the Torah, if he uses the wrong pronunciation, and that goes in both directions - sefardi shuls that won't allow an ashkenazi pronunciation and ashkenaz shuls that won't allow a sefardi pronunciation.
We can debate whether people should be so dogmatic about the pronunciations and accents, considering we are all one nation and today we live together and speak Hebrew together (almost completely with the sefardi pronunciation), but until there is some consensus on the natter among the rabbonim and gedolim, people will continue insisting on their specific pronunciation. Nothing new and unusual happened in this shul, and it happens regularly in shuls across Israel, and probably in shuls abroad as well.
In Kiryat Yearim a Sefardi went up to lead the services in a specific ashkenazi minyan because nobody else present wanted to. He davened with his sefardi pronunciation, though he led the services according to the asheknazi nusach of the shul.
The gabbai at some point decided this was unacceptable and against the custom of the shul and he went and locked the aron kodesh and said he would only reopen it when they would find someone willing to lead and read form the torah using the ashkenaz pronunciation.
source: INN
I am left wondering why this is a news story at all. There are many shuls that will not allow a chazzan to lead the services, or a baal kria to read from the Torah, if he uses the wrong pronunciation, and that goes in both directions - sefardi shuls that won't allow an ashkenazi pronunciation and ashkenaz shuls that won't allow a sefardi pronunciation.
We can debate whether people should be so dogmatic about the pronunciations and accents, considering we are all one nation and today we live together and speak Hebrew together (almost completely with the sefardi pronunciation), but until there is some consensus on the natter among the rabbonim and gedolim, people will continue insisting on their specific pronunciation. Nothing new and unusual happened in this shul, and it happens regularly in shuls across Israel, and probably in shuls abroad as well.
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Well, once he went up and lead part of the davening, it was pretty disgusting of the gabbai to decide then that it was unacceptable. Sounds close to malbin pnei chavero b'rabim.
ReplyDelete1. its up to the gabbai to pick an appropriate shliach tzibur, subject to his / the "usual" rules. sometimes you have to compromise.
ReplyDelete2. i think the gabbai should be required to publicly perform "eretz yisrael nehederet".
3. i once had to daven shacharit on rosh chodesh (both days) in a yekke / washington heights affilliate (paramus, new jersey.)
the baal koreh was a young farsi teenager, who properly pronounced the "awws" etc the yeeke's are famous for, even though he definitely said it in a sfardi "mivtah" accent. (i actually thought he was syrian, but was told half the shul is parsim.
4. the only daily minyan in frankfurt (a good walking distance from the suburb of rudelheim, now in the city limits) is nusach sfard. but the chassidishe baal koreh (also a young teenager) whewn i was there definitely did the "awws".