Who has the mesorah?

So who has the authentic tradition? Who is the representative of the mesorah? Many in the contemporary Litvish velt will claim that they have it. But is that so? Did you know that the chuppah is a somewhat recent innovation as is the bedekin? Original Ashkenaz used a tallis instead of a chupah and a chumpas mein (where the kallah is brought to the chassan and the two sit together) instead of the bedekin. In original Ashkenaz, birchos hatorah was said before korbannos at the end of birchos hashachar rather than at the beginning of davening. Aleinu ended with b'cavod. Baruch Shemei and ana b'ocach were not said at all. Akeidas Yitzchak was not said. There was no kaddish after aleinu. Korbonos were limited to parshas hatamid and the mishnayus. Upshirin was not done. A wimpel was wrapped around the sefer Torah, not a sash. Boys wore a tallis. Tefillin were smaller. The bracha on slanderers was totally different. Tallis went on just before korbonos. And then there's the short coats and clean shaven faces! And that is not all but you get the point. If you study minhag ashkenaz, you see the the Litvacks don't have THE mesorah.

They have A mesorah, one that put significant changes on the one they inherited. So why all the criticism of Chassidim. The changes from Ashkenaz to Polish are arguably greater than the ones to Sefard. What did Sefard do from there? Move hodu to before baruch sheamar? Move ein keloheinu to before Aleinu? They add a page of material to pezukei d'zimrah too. Minor stuff. Also, vidui every day. But overall, Polish and Sefard are pretty similar.

Actually, the Chabad siddur is in many ways closer to Ashkenaz. Birchos HaTorah is in the middle of the birchos hashachar as is tallis. The bracha for heretics mentions the 'evil kingdom.' The other brochos of Amidah are the same as Ashkenaz. As the Chabad siddur is 200 years old, we see that many of the changes made in nusah Poland/Lita are recent. I think the Chabad English siddur is the closest to original Ashkenaz of the English translations, closer possibly than the Hirsch siddur, which is Minhag Poland/Ashkenaz.

Is it all the influence of Chassidus? Much is, but chupah not, bedeken not. Boys not wearing tallis is probably from poverty. Some of it is just Eastern Europe. And if Chassidus was the main cause, is that a problem? Maybe it's a good influence.

Now the csav of the Ari is different from the Beis Yosef, the latter used by Litvacks. I'll give you that.

So what's the big deal if you go from Polish to Sefard? The changes are so vast anyway. If it were so horrible to not go with the more original nusach wouldn't all the Litvacks switch to Yekke? Certainly, the boys could put on a tallis now that the community is incomparably more affluent. One trip to Eretz Yisrael could put talleisim on 20 bochurim.

Maybe the German rabbanim would tell you they should switch. But isn't it the Litvacks - ie the contemporary ones - who are pounding everyone for not being like them?

And let me ask you this, is the German minhag totally authentic? They added baruch hu v'aruch shemo and tashlich and kapparos. It's more authentic but not totally so. Much of the music, as much as I like it, seems 19th century German to me. Is the choir at Breuer's traditional? You know it's a mimicry of German choirs. I'm not criticizing that but saying rather that some careful innovation in a time of need is acceptable. Much of the music is composed by a man who I think wasn't frum. (Lewandaski) And latter day German Jews added lecha dodi as did everyone else. So if the German tradition is so totally precise and non-innovative, then what's up with Lecha Dodi? That was written a few hundred years ago by a Sephardi.

Well I thought you can't change anything! But we see one can add as necessary and appropriate.

And another thing. Let's say you keep minhag Galicia. That's nice. But that minhag wasn't always old. It developed. So why can't you take on the minhag of where you live now, that established by the frummer people? You live in NY and you start taking on what people do there as based on the poskim there? Why is that so terrible? Maybe it's good. You want some uniformity in the community. The main thing is you have tzadickim and scholars in charge.

All this isn't cut and dry. We don't abandon minhag willy nilly but we don't have to make ourselves crazy either.

So you want to keep minhag Chabad? Go for it if that helps you to connect to Chabad in the way you want to. It's as authentic as anything from Eastern Europe.

Same with hashkafa. It's so obvious that the typical Litvack is missing mysticism. The chasedei ashkenaz were mystics as well as talmudists. Chassidim are adding back what once was.

The popularization of kabbalah may be knew but the Arizal explains that this is needed in the days of Moshiach and we see these days are unlike any other in history.

And Torah study. They used to study grammar. They used to study mishnah and ein yaakov. They studied all kinds of things. This turning all study to a few parts of Gemara is a recent innovation as is doing it in the abstract style.

The point is go with the derech that works for you. All this hacking at derachim is a contemporary Litvish thing. And people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

The Litvish derech is fine and dandy. But if it's not for you, don't let anyone intimidate you into it.

And let's talk about the siddur. One thinks, the siddur in your hand came word for word from on high. Actually, they are put together by printers. I know a few people who made siddurim. They make all kinds of decisions of what to put in there, oftentimes based on what will sell. For example, the new Yekke siddur from Austria contains Baruch Shemei and ana b'ocoach in small print because so many people are accustomed to saying it, even though yekkes don't. Siddur try to pack in as much as possible to attract a larger crowd. It is very expensive to produce a siddur. I know a few people who have done it. You do one in a lifetime if you are so blessed. So don't think you have to say everything in a siddur. What do you say? That needs to be studied and discussed. New innovations certainly are not obligatory. So if you are new to religion and the whole siddur is too much don't feel bad for leaving out certain parts. And there is much that is the bare minimum, plenty actually.

So we see, the whole subject of derachim is complicated. Baruch Hashem! This is not a cult. We don't crush people. The derachim are there to help you! And therefore there is a significant element of personalization. If any yeshiva guy tells you otherwise, ask him why he's saying baruch shemei.