It seems that, despite the simple Halacha, when a large exodus (when they
vastly outnumber the original community) of people land in a new country,
they keep their Minhag and drown out the old Minhag.
So Ashkenazim who landed in the US kept their minhagim from the Alter
Heim (and didn't become Sefardi), and when Sefardim who landed in the
Ottoman Empire after the expulsion stayed Sefardi and didn't adopt the
original Minhag.
: Why didn't those who returned to EY practice the minhagim of EY?
: For example, why didn't they go back to the 3.5 year cycle of reading
: the Torah?
While this is hard to picture, as there was no continuity between the EY
community of Minhag EY of Chazal's day and the current Yishuv, ROYosef does
make a similar point.
ROY believes that if an Ashkenazi makes aliyah, they really ought to
switch to Minhagei Sepharad. On the grounds that the SA set minhag EY.
He does later find heterimg for Ashkenazim to continue with their old
minhagim, but he does believe it's just that, a heter, and if an Ashkenazi
Israeli wished to switch, by all means they should do so.
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha
It seems that, despite the simple Halacha, when a large exodus (when they
vastly outnumber the original community) of people land in a new country,
they keep their Minhag and drown out the old Minhag.So Ashkenazim who landed in the US kept their minhagim from the Alter
Heim (and didn't become Sefardi), and when Sefardim who landed in the
Ottoman Empire after the expulsion stayed Sefardi and didn't adopt the
original Minhag.
_______________________________________________
This is a description of the fact but not an explanation of why this was a halachically acceptable result (ie where is this exception to the minhag hamakom rule)
Kt
Joel
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: It seems that, despite the simple Halacha, when a large exodus (when they
: vastly outnumber the original community) of people land in a new country,
: they keep their Minhag and drown out the old Minhag.
: So Ashkenazim who landed in the US kept their minhagim from the Alter
: Heim (and didn't become Sefardi), and when Sefardim who landed in the
: Ottoman Empire after the expulsion stayed Sefardi and didn't adopt the
: original Minhag.
I think it's more that minhag hamaqom is about the community, not the
geography. If so many new people move in that they overhwelm the old
community, they also overwhelm the old minhag.
However, when Edot haMizrach got to the US in the late 20th century, many
of them moved into existing communities and neither drowned out the old
minhag nor did they adopt it. I think they should have done the latter,
since minhag avos is only a "thing" when there is no minhag hamaqom.
(Except in places like Deal, NJ, which is predominantly Syrian)
And for many minhagim, the existing community -- from Yekkes to
Vizhnitzers -- did have a single practice.
This gets me to an issue left unresolved in a previous discussion of
minhag hamaqom:
Does minhag hamaqom apply piecewise, or only when there are so many
practices that are consistent that there is a general feeling of unity
of pesaq.
For example, we talk about there being a "minhag hamaqom" in EY about
things like saying Shir shel Yom after Shacharis even when there is a
Mussaf, or Hakafos after Hallel. But the list of things in which the
vast majority of the observant communities of Israel agree upon is
quite small. Heterogeneity is the norm.
:-)BBii!
-Micha