Conclusion: Questions and Answers

Q. Can you please discuss briefly how the split between waiting between fleishigs and milchigs happened (3 hours vs. 6 hours)?

A. I spoke about this already in Riverdale, in RJC. I can’t repeat the whole thing, but this is just a difference in the interpretations of the Gemara - which is older than the opinion of the 6 hours.

Q. I have two questions. One about Minhag Ashkenaz. In the Maharil it appears that people did not put on a tallis until the time they got married, and the yekkes today use a tallis at the chuppah. I was always brought up that yekkish children wear a tallis. Do you have any idea about when that happened? The second question is from the other side. Since in Eastern Europe they followed the Rama, and the Rama says we all do netilas yadayim before kiddush. Do you have a time that changed?

A. I have discussed both topics - one fully and one partially - in my existing books. Regarding the first question: The Maharil gave many drashos (sermons) in his life. The Sefer Maharil that we have is not written by him. It was written by a talmid, R. Zalman of (undecipherable). I don’t know if the Maharil would have printed everything that he said in an occasional drasha. But he did say something. He said, we have a pasuk that says gidilim ta’aseh l’cha. We have another pasuk that says Ki yikach ish, isha chadasha. This is the neighboring pasuk. He says, from here we see that marriage is linked to tzitzis. What people do not realize, is that long before the Maharil - and I brought several Rishonim - that also bring this same drasha, use this as a proof that marriage needs to be done with a tallis. This is the source for Chupas Tallis. This was centuries prior to the Maharil. The Maharil, in one of his drashos, and we need to take into account that the Maharil lived after the Black Plague, after the destruction of the kehillos, as Rabbi Weil has mentioned, he restored the old minhagim after this big Holocaust. He could not restore the economic situation of the kehillos which was much worse than the one which hit America last year. There was much poverty. Half of Europe was dead. The towns were deserted. Purchasing a tallis was extremely expensive at this time. Why? Everything was hand woven. The Industrial Revolution only happened in the 19th Century… A tallis was so expensive, that a pair of Tefillin was cheaper! If a person had to purchase a tallis at that time, he had an aliya…for a special occasion, such as an aufruf - he would get a tallis. When such poverty existed, people waited for the last opportunity, so at this point they would buy a tallis. Earlier, because wearing a tallis is not compulsory, unlike tefillin, so they left it for later. The Chavos Yair points out that once the Maharil made a drush, so he connected the tallis by marriage to purchasing a tallis. We find a contradictory thing because he writes that in Austria, where the situation was not as bad as it was in Germany, they still had tallaisim for the youth. Later, things turned around. The Austrian Jews, which nowadays are called the Polish Jews, do not have a tallis, and the German Jews do have a tallis. What’s the point? This proves what we just said. As long as there was poverty, they refrained, but as soon as they recovered economically and could purchase tallaisim, in Germany they returned to purchasing them for their children. In Poland where the situation became worse, they stopped…so it turned upside down - in Poland without tallaisim and in Germany with tallaisim. This is for the first question.

Regarding washing before kiddush, how did this change? Like I said, in Poland they were looser about the minhagim, and certain Sefardic ideas and other poskim came into play. Above all, we need to take into account that Chasidus caused a very strong change in the mood of Polish Jews, and everything that was from the Sefardim was looked at as more appealing, as on a higher level, because the Arizal to them seemed like a Sefardi (this is a topic for a different occasion), to them, when it came to Nusach HaAri and Sefardim, it became easier to change minhagim.

Q. Do you have any idea why Nusach Romi, since we all started in Italy, why it didn’t attach itself later on?

A. We do not have a clear indication, but we have two points that might help us to understand the situation. 1. We spoke about Bari and Otranto, we spoke of Rome, and it could be they had local traditions which differed from each other. 2. Another thing is that seeing that the Torah centers moved on to Germany, they had no Torah scholars, and this could be part of this change. We find in later generations that Italian talmidim went to Germany to learn in German yeshivos because they did not have enough scholars…so we do not know the real reason; it could be either of these.

Q. In today's times, when people go to shul, they often worry about how quickly they can get out of shul…they sometimes daven “to the clock” ...as a result, many shuls that used to have the minhag to say piyutim and yitzros …and no longer do so. How can they preserve these customs? (This question was difficult to hear. This was my understanding of the question).

A. Education is not my field, and I have worked more with adult education than with the education of children … [that being said], the earlier you start with children, the better. The truth of the matter is, you need to spread the information and the knowledge of the importance of the piyut. Take a teshuva (responsa) of Shemesh Marpeh, a beautiful teshuva written by Rav Hirsch on this topic of piyut. If you cirulate this around the shuls, this might get some people back. You can also frighten them if you like, if this is your attitute. You can tell them that Rav Yehuda HaChasid says that if you stop certain piyutim you can die the same year…there is a Bach that has a story about a person, a Rabbi in Poland, who stopped the piyutim in his shul and “lo hotzi shinaso - he did not live through the year”. I don’t know if this type of thing works in America, but it is a method. In fact, there is also a story from Vizhnitz. There was a plague and many died at the beginning of the 20th century. They went to the Rebbe and he was asked what could be done to stop people from dying, and he said that we know that piyutim cause arichus yamim…we also know that kol hama’arich b’tifilaso, ma’arichin lo yamav v’shanosav - whoever invests time in tefilla, his life gets extended. One time the Chasam Sofer davened for the amud when he was young, and he davened longer than other people did in the yeshiva. He was told, you daven so long, that by the time you are done, we managed to finish ‘a whole siman of Shulchan Aruch, with the Magen Avraham’s commentary’. What you are doing is bittul Torah! He responded, with this gemara - whoever invests time in teffila will have a longer life. In the extended years that I get, I will make up for all those simanim. However, going back to this conception, the rebbe said since piyutim is such a tool of arichas yamim, let’s bring them back. They brought back some of the piyutim and the plague ceased. This is probably not a Chasidishe legend…I think this is historically documented.

Q. Can you speak about the German minhag of punctuality?

A. I was actually asked by Mr. Allen Fagin, who said, “You are going to the OU headquarters, please talk about the very famous yekkish minhag of punctuality.” I forgot to tell him that I am also going to speak about Minhag Poland, so I do not know what I am supposed to say now! In fact, it is not true that Eastern European Jews were not punctual. In Bnei Brak, there is a joke that circulates: What is the difference between a Hungarian Yekke and a German Yekke? The Hungarians are also known as “yekkes”. The Hungarian Yekke comes five minutes early, while the yekke comes on time. What I suggest is that if the staff has a problem of coming on time, first try the Hungarian Minhag - the Rambam says if a tree grows in a crooked manner toward one side, you pull it the other way…then everyone will be on time!

Q. When the Rama speaks of minhagim, whose minhagim is he referring to?

A. When the Rama speaks of minhagim, he is speaking about minhagim that he saw either in Krakow or Lublin. He was never out of Poland. When he says “lo raeenu” it is his observation of what he saw in his country.

Thank you to: My father, Mr. Refael Adler, Shlita, for editing portions of this article.