Q&A: Changing the Prayer Rite
Changing the Prayer Rite
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Regarding changing the prayer rite: suppose I am Ashkenazi but I like the Yemenite prayer rite. Am I allowed to change the custom of my forefathers and from now on pray according to the Yemenite rite? And likewise with Selichot? And with Grace after Meals?
I know there are halakhic decisors who wrote that it is not advisable or that it is forbidden, but are there also grounds to permit it?
Answer
I don’t recall at the moment any differences in the liturgy that affect whether one has fulfilled one’s obligation. This is a matter of custom, and a custom can be changed in circumstances where it is very necessary, or when you hold differently (in the case of a halakhic custom).
Discussion on Answer
There is an obligation to preserve customs, derived from “Do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” But that obligation does not override halakhic and other considerations. If your concentration in prayer will improve, then it is certainly permitted to change the custom. When there is no other consideration, the custom is what determines it.
The Mishnah Berurah in Orach Chayim 68:4 wrote that one should, apparently, not deviate from the custom of one’s forefathers, and he also brought other opinions that forbid it. What is the reasoning, basically, for forbidding a change from the ancestral prayer rite, and why did the Rabbi write that it is possible to change when the circumstances make it necessary?
And what counts as “very necessary”? Is a desire for change and a better sense of connection included in that category? And if not, then what is?