Q&A: Do Not Forsake Your Mother's Teaching
Do Not Forsake Your Mother's Teaching
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi.
First of all, great appreciation for your work on this site. It is very educational and enlightening.
Here is my question. Near my home there is a minyan that prays in the Baladi rite (the original Yemenite prayer rite). My ancestral custom is the Shami rite (quite similar to the prayer rite of Sephardic communities). There is a big difference between the two rites. They do not allow praying in the Shami rite. In addition, near my home there is an Ashkenazi synagogue that allows the prayer leader to pray according to his own rite. My question is: where does the consideration of “Do not forsake your mother's teaching” apply—if I pray in the Ashkenazi synagogue or in the Baladi synagogue?
Answer
As far as I know, the difference is not between an original and an imitation, but between the rite of the villages (Shami) and the rite of the city-dwellers (Baladi). But I am not really an authority on this.
In any case, I don’t think there is a halakhic answer to the question of whether closeness to the original custom is preferable or not. If you are not following the custom, then you are not following it. It makes no difference whether the deviation is small or large.
With God’s help, 13 Sivan 5784
To Noam — greetings,
The “Baladi” rite [in Arabic: local] is the original rite of Yemenite Jews. The “Shami” rite [“Sham” in Arabic: Syria and the Land of Israel] is the Sephardic rite based on the versions of the Ari, which was adopted by some Yemenite communities under the influence of the Ari’s Kabbalah that reached Yemen.
A similar process happened in Ashkenazic lands. Many communities continued with the original Ashkenazic rite in its various forms (Germany, Lithuania, Poland, and so on), while the Hasidim created “Nusach Sefard,” which incorporated substantial influence from the Ari’s rites and customs.
As far as I know, someone who prays in a synagogue where they use a different rite continues to pray, in all parts of the service said individually, according to his ancestral rite. But if he is the prayer leader, he prays according to the synagogue’s rite. In that way, the principle of “Do not forsake your mother's teaching” is upheld in his personal prayer, while the principle of “Do not separate yourself from the community” is upheld when he serves as prayer leader.
Best regards, Fish"l
And there was a story about a Chabad Hasid who had an obligation and needed to serve as cantor on the Sabbath for Musaf in a synagogue of other Hasidim, and they warned him not to insert anything from the Chabad rite. Having no choice, the Chabadnik agreed. But at the end of the prayer he said to them: “I got you. I said ‘You established the Sabbath’ according to the Chabad wording, and not ‘May You plan the Sabbath’ according to your wording” 🙂