In Avodah Digest, Vol 3, Issue 16, RAM wrote:
> I was thus very surprised to read in R' Yitzchok Levine's post, of
Rav Schwab adding hakafos to Maariv of Simchas Torah in not one, but
two such shuls. I'm curious what his reasons were, and what the
shuls' reactions were. <
When I was a kid (RDrYBreuer was still alive but RSS was "in charge"), "Breuer's" had 7 hakafos, but there was no dancing or delay in them; dancing occurred elsewhere (across the street in the "social hall" and/or in the Beis Medrash a few blocks down Bennett Avenue). While I was in HS (not sure, but I think this occurred already before RSS passed away), the shul was persuaded to take out the first row of middle-section men's seats to allow some room for dancing at the end of each hakafah. Some of the old-timers disapproved, while others appreciated the enhanced ruach.
In the next digest, RnTK replied:
> And the way Yekkes "dance" there is not all that big a change from not
having hakafos to having hakafos. At least that's how it was in the Yekke shul in
Joburg when I was there. (I say this with all due respect and affection for
a community my father much admired.) <
to which RELPhM replied:
> - Breuer's has kept more of the original minneg Ashkenez, but Frankfurt's polonisation started in the 18th century at the latest, went on during the 19th, and today's KAJ is even less original, not least due to the chareidisation, and also because of false assumptions like yours. Add to the demand to be like other chareidists specific demands, which led to the introduction of the Polish ritual of Yizkor, for example, because Holocaust survivors wanted to bemoan their relatives in this way that they saw elsewhere.
- Rav Schwab zetza"l was very strongly influenced by the Eastern yeshives he went to as a youth. <
RELPhM is correct, but I would add that the hanhagah of "Breuer's" was influenced by its younger generation of "Eastern yeshivos"-educated leaders and their parents, who had sent their kids to those out-of-town Yeshivos; by himself, I believe RSS would not have authorized the removal of that row of seats for dancing during hakafos. Parenthetically, I always remembered and especially enjoyed seeing the dancing on the bimah which took place on ST morning after leining -- it was rare to see the Chazan and two members of the Synagogue Committee engaging in such activity!
Gut Chodesh and all the best from
--Michael Poppers via RIM pager
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