We wrote in the past about a Polish Rebbe that davened nusach Ashkenaz, but that was some time ago. In recent days the frum press has been writing about another “Rebbe” who davened nusach Ashkenaz as well, along with his kehillah. We are writing, of course, about אדמו”ר מערלוי, ר’ יוחנן סופר זצ”ל, who was niftar just a few days ago. The Erlau (or Erloi) Rebbe, R. Sofer, like R. Shmuel Wosner zt”l, who’s lesser known Ashkenaz side was discussed here a while back, was actually from, and part of, the Oberlander Hungarian nusach Ashkenaz community, which is not so well known to outsiders, and is often confused with other groups.
For R. Sofer, this background, being a descendant of the great
Chasam Sofer, towering iconic leader of Hungarian Jewry, particularly the Oberlander segment of it (after moving to Oberland from Germany), was very important, and he worked hard to make sure it continued. עד כדי כך, that not only did he issue many seforim of Torah from משפחת החתם סופר זצ”ל, his kehillah faithfully kept the nusach hatefillah of the Chasam Sofer and Oberland, נוסח אשכנז. Even more so, Erlau even wears tefillin for morning davening on חול המועד openly, בפרהסיא, in ירושלים עיה”ק at their בית מדרש, as per their ancestral minhog (as is done in a number of other congregations in ארץ ישראל as well, contrary to popular belief). No gartel either. Interestingly, many people considered him a Chasidic Rebbe nevertheless, despite such ‘infractions’.
May the zechus of clinging to the מסורה of Oberland stand in his merit, and may his descendants and talmidim continue in that special path.
Tags: Chassidim, Minhag Eretz Yisroel, Nusach Ashkenaz
This entry was posted on February 26, 2016 at 1:08 am and is filed under Minhog Ashkenaz, Minhogim, Nusach Ashkenaz, Oberland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 1, 2016 at 9:05 am |
I davened at the Erlau shul a few times on Shabbos and noticed some minhagim influenced by hasidism/nusach sefard:
1) Always say “Sim Shalom” in Shemone Eisre in all three tefilos (according to minhag the Chasam Sofer and the Yavetz).
2) Say “reshus bahava ze la ze” in brachos shma.
3) Every person reads the haftorah to himself. The maftir only says the brachos before and after it out loud.
March 3, 2016 at 1:16 pm |
Thanks for the comment.
“I davened at the Erlau shul a few times on Shabbos and noticed some minhagim influenced by hasidism/nusach sefard”
Of the three things you mention, the first one is not necessarily Hasidic, as you note, and I think that the last one is standard Oberlander practice.
So that seems to leave only the second one of your list.