Artscroll's Take On The Arizal, Nusach Sefard, Chassidus
Excerpt from "The Arizal: The Life and Times of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria" by Nechemia Piontac (Artscroll - Pages 278-279)
The Ari's teachings are not only evident in chassidic thought, but also in the day-to-day life of its adherents. The tzaddikim and their followers preferred to adapt the customs of the Ari even where these ostensibly conflicted with the halachah as ruled in the Shulchan Aruch. They altered the text of the prayers, the familiar nusach Ashkenaz, which was a centuries-old tradition throughout Jewish communities, in favor of the Ari's text, today referred to as nusach S'fard.
R' Chaim Halberstam of Sanz in his Divrei Chaim writes:
"After the holy angel, the Baal Shem Tov, descended from heaven, he understood that his soul had not emerged from the gateway of nusach Ashkenaz...therefore whoever adheres to the precepts of the Baal Shem Tov and his disciples has embraced the version of the Arizal."
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This posting continues the conversation on this topic left off here
6 Comments:
I referred a "Livtak" exactly to that tshuvo of Divrey Chaim, which is quoted above in our discussiob about the nusach below.
Really it is not an "Artscroll's take". Artscroll just published once a book "The Arizal", (translated from the original in Loshn Koydesh". Most notably, it never republished it again! (While other artscroll publications were republished many times). I think it falls out from standard Artscroll "agenda", and therefore was published by them more accidentally than intentionally, thus it was never republished by them again.
"he understood that his soul had not emerged from the gateway of nusach Ashkenaz..." What does that mean, can anyone explain? Many thanks. Also, what do you think of eidot hamizrach nusach?
Mosh: Do you have an access to sifrey Chasidus I hope? Find a seyfer "Maggid Dvorov leYakoyv" (Also called Likutey Amorim) from the Mezheritcher Maggid zy"o. Look there maymor number 141. It will answer your question in detail, and it will be better, than getting it second hand.
thank you reb yid, i'll try to check it out. What about my second question? Is eidot hamizrach nusach considered "real" nusach becouse no changes were made in it (if that's true)? Also, do you think it's at all possible to speculate which shvatim the known nuschaot belong to (for example may be nusach ashkenaz is Efraim, Eidot Hamizrach is Yehuda, etc.)?
A Yid said... Really it is not an "Artscroll's take". Artscroll just published once a book "The Arizal", (translated from the original in Loshn Koydesh". Most notably, it never republished it again! (While other artscroll publications were republished many times). I think it falls out from standard Artscroll "agenda", and therefore was published by them more accidentally than intentionally, thus it was never republished by them again.
Basically you're right. Interestingly enough, ArtScroll published this book as part of their "Youth Series" in conjunction with the Lakewood Cheder School, in 1988!
Apparently, shortly after it came out, someone wasn't too happy with some of its contents -- I seem to recall that they had a hard time with a whole chapter [11] on Face Reading and Palmistry. I happen to know this because at around the same time I was working on a book about one of the Chassidic masters, and they took out a story that was too "mystical", out of fears for the same kind of flak. But it's interesting that they never republished it...
It's my understanding that nusach Arizal was written as a nusach that would be accpted for all the shvatim. It was a special nusach and my understanding is it was written for him and not for the masses. This is all aside from the fact that all the other nusachim are really watered down versions of the original nusach Ari.
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