Ashkenazi/Sephardi Customs in Our Time

I am asking something that has troubled me for a long time. You write about Ashkenazi and Sephardi customs. Today, we are neither in Ashkenaz nor in Sepharad. According to Halacha, custom seems to be related to place rather than family, and therefore there are laws concerning someone who moves from one place to another regarding which customs bind him. Because custom is related to place, not family. If so, what difference does it make to someone living in Israel or America what the customs of Sepharad or Ashkenaz were, since he is not in those places at all. What should matter is what the custom of Israel is. And to say that in Israel there are two different customs is not a custom at all, because it is forbidden by the prohibition of "do not create factions."

Hello,

This is a beautiful and fundamental question.

Ashkenazi communities adopted certain methods in their rulings, while Sephardi communities adopted other methods. [ 'Ashkenaz' - in this case includes most European countries, and 'Sepharad' - most African and Middle Eastern communities]. 

When people come to live in an existing community, they must follow the local customs, due to the prohibition of "do not create factions." However, when two groups from two places come to a third place where there is no custom, and each has its own synagogue and independent community, there is no violation of "do not create factions." 

Therefore, in Israel, where there were no continuous communities, and people from different communities in Europe and Africa arrived, and each community has its own system, there is no violation of "do not create factions." 

[This is also the case in many communities in the USA and Europe, where many people from different communities gathered and did not join an existing community, and therefore there is no violation of "do not create factions"].

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