Part 2: From Austria to Poland

The first stop was the Erstereich which is known today as Austria, the Eastern Kingdom of Germany. This was the first place [through emigration] in which these Ashkenazim dwelled. Eventually they moved to the nearby countries: Moravia, Bohemia, which today we call the Czech Republic. Later they went further to Poland, Russia, Hungary, Lithuania, and all the Eastern European countries that we know of.

How did this affect their minhagim? As Rabbi Weil has mentioned, there were local customs which differed from each other. It sometimes looks more complex than it is. The structure was all the same. In some pratim, minor issues, there were differences, like for example the selection of piyutim which were sometimes different, [or other minhagim]. I can bring a very simple example: did they say kiddush on Friday night in shul before Amar Rabbi Elazar or after? These were not major differences, but were rather small differences. A tune could be different, as the Rabbi has mentioned…but basically, the structure of all of these kehillos was more or less the same.

But, as you know, emigration causes losses. People who remain in the same country as their ancestors are more loyal to the customs of the place [where they live]. This is a very normal human behavior.

But, when you move from one place to another - let’s use American Jews who moved from Europe as an example, things change. Their pronunciation has changed, sometimes for the good…like when you change a cholom from oy to oh. This is an improvement. But, if you change the patach to aw, this might be problematic. Sometimes I hear Americans singing… When I was young, I used to listen a lot to The Rabbis’ Sons - and they make the sheva sound like a chirik. This is not such a good innovation. Americans didn’t intentionally change the pronunciation, but were both privileged to improve, and to harm, their pronunciation. So things change unintentionally if you go from one country to another. With the best intentions that you have.

Similarly, the emigration from the Rhineland to Austria caused minor changes, which were the beginning of what we call Eastern European Jewry. Eventually, [these changes] became stronger and stronger. Also, due to the fact that German Jews had adopted the German traits of preservation, accuracy, and pünktlichkeit, they were more conservative about their minhagim than other walks of life - where in some places they were [preserving more of their old minhagim] - and I spoke about this already in previous lectures here in America this week, and in most places they were less particular about preserving every item of mesorah. Eventually, this “Austrian minhag” became the platform of Eastern European minhag, of the minhagim which we call “The Rama”, which is the epitome of Polish halacha.

Let’s have a look at the major diaspora of Ashkenazim which is ‘non-Yekkish’. As we said, initially it was ‘Yekkish’ - all Ashkenazim are, unless we listen to Palestinian propaganda that have certain ideas that the Khazars are the ancestors of the Eastern European Jews, based on some Jewish scholars in the beginning of the 20th century, where they found some very very mingy evidence for this… We know, we know for sure, that Polish Jews, Hungarian Jews, and (undecipherable), are initially German Jews.

How did this Eastern European Jewishness develop? In the early times, in the 13th century, we find an interesting expression of Rabbi Yehuda HaChasid of Regensburg - everyone knows of Rabbi Yehuda HaChasid - he substantiated the report about the quality of the Jewish communities in Poland, Russia, and Hungary, that they have no lomdei Torah there and they will hire anyone who knows anything to be their chazzan, their teacher. And if you take that very minimal scholar away from them, they are left without any Torah. This gives us a very dim picture of the quality of Torah which existed in Eastern Europe at that time.

We don’t know of any yeshivos in Poland during that time. We don’t know of any scholarly books. None of us have ever learned a Polish rishon. There are plenty of Polish acharonim, but none of us have ever opened a sefer, a rishon, that is from a Polish or Litvish rishon. It didn’t exist.

Later, in the 15th century, we find that Rav Yisrael of Bruna, sent a letter to Krakow and he says as follows: “I am very cautious about what I write to these people because they are not b’nei Torah”.

Also, regarding Frankfurter [1] - we all know [that those from Frankfurt] can be arrogant about their special minhagim - already then in the 16th century he says: “I can’t go by the pronunciation of the ches of the Polish Jews. I go by the pronunciation of the ches which comes from the throat, like we do in Germany”. The German Jews at this time, and even later, still pronounced the ches from the throat. “Because these Polish Jews, with all due respect, they developed their kriah much later than us…so how should they know the correct pronunciation?” Nowadays, we all have been affected by the Polish Jews, and none of us pronounce the ches properly. But, during his time, he said “Look here, we can’t go by them. They had no Rishonim…they had no mesorah. How can we change from [our] ches to [their] ches?”

So when did Polish Jewry become such a mighty Torah center? It started gradually. First, we find a Sefardi gadol arriving there. He came shortly after the Spanish Exile, the geirush Sefarad of 1492. His name is Rabbi Levi bar Yaakov Kikinch. We know of very few people from Portuguese and Spanish countries arriving in Poland, but they had not created a revolution yet.