Question: I recently moved to a new neighborhood where the predominance of synagogue options that are to my personal satisfaction pray in Nusach Sefard. However, when it comes Chol HaMoed, I am faced with being one of the few who don tefillin. What am I to do?
Sam Schwartz
Via E-mail
Answer: Your question is relevant during the current festival of Sukkot as well as on Chol HaMoed Pesach. To satisfactorily respond, it behooves us to understand and set forth the fundamental reasons underlying the different customs that have evolved over the centuries.
The Torah states in Parashat Ki Tisa (Exodus 31:16-17): “Ve’shomru Bnei Yisrael et ha’Shabbat la’asot et ha’Shabbat l’dorotom brit olam. Beini u’vein Bnei Yisrael ot he l’olam ki sheshet yomim asah Hashem et hashamayim v’et ha’aretz u’vayom hashevi’i shavat va’yyinafash” – The Children of Israel shall observe the Sabbath (and not defile it – see Ibn Ezra ad loc.) to make the Sabbath an everlasting covenant. Between Me and the Children of Israel it is a sign forever that in six days G-d created the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He ceased from work [shavat] and was refreshed. (Rashi notes that “vayinafash” denotes a type of rest that restores one’s soul and breath, adding that the use of such language is one that the human mind is able to comprehend, as G-d does not need to rest).
In most congregations, these verses are part of the Friday evening service. (Nusach Ha’Ari – Chabad and Nusach Ha’Gra – Minhag Eretz Yisrael is not to recite this tefillah.) We see from this text that the Sabbath was given to the Children of Israel as a sign that Hashem created the world in six days. As for the Festivals, the Talmud states (Shabbos 60b), “There is no difference between Festivals and the Sabbath except for [the preparation of] food for [the need of] a person” (ochel nefesh bilvad – see Tosafot, ad loc. sv “ein bein Yom Tov l’Shabbat…”). Thus Yom Tov, like Shabbat, is regarded as a sign.
Likewise, we find that tefillin are referred to as a sign, as stated in Parashat Bo (Exodus 13:16), “Ve’hoya le’ot al yadcha u’letotaphot bein einecha ki b’chozek yad hotzianu Hashem mi’mitzrayim” – And it shall be a sign upon your arm, and frontlets between your eyes, for with a strong hand did G-d bring us forth from Egypt. Donning tefillin serves as a sign to remind us of the omnipotence of our Creator who molded us into a nation.
We find a Baraita in Tractate Menachot (36b) in the name of Rabbi Akiva: One might have thought that one should don tefillin on Sabbaths and on Festivals; therefore, Scripture says (loc.cit.), “‘And it shall be a sign upon your arm …’ that is, [only on those days] that need a sign, but Sabbaths and Festivals are excluded, since they themselves are a sign.” Tosafot (s.v. Yatz’u) explain that the Sabbath and the Festivals are excluded, but not because it is forbidden to engage in work on those days. Even though work is permitted on Chol HaMoed, the Intermediate Days are still an integral part of the sign of Yom Tov, which manifests itself in the prohibition against eating chametz all through Pesach and the obligation to eat in the sukkah during the entire festival of Sukkot. Tosafot then quote a passage in Mo’ed Katan (19a), which seems to indicate that one is required to don tefillin on Chol HaMoed. Tosafot discuss at length the juxtaposed views, seeking to reconcile the two Talmudic passages. There is, however, no clear statement in the Talmud regarding the donning of tefillin on Chol HaMoed.
The Tur (Orach Chayyim 31:2) states that there is a doubt, according to some authorities, whether donning tefillin is required on Chol HaMoed, and therefore we put them on but do not recite the blessing. Others rule that the beracha is to be recited.
According to Darkei Moshe (Rema’s commentary on the Tur), people do don tefillin on Chol HaMoed (such was the case in Eastern Europe), but the blessing is recited quietly in the synagogue, unlike the rest of the year. It is interesting to point out that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, zt”l, notes that even if the blessing is not recited, one may not talk between donning the hand phylactery and the head phylactery, except when responding to Kaddish and Kedusha (as quoted by his son the Rishon L’Zion, the previous Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, shlit”a, in his work Yalkut Yosef).
Rabbi Yosef Caro, in his longer Beit Yosef commentary to the Tur (Orach Chayyim ibid.), adheres, after much discussion, to the opinion that tefillin are not to be donned on Chol HaMoed. However, Rema (Shulchan Aruch, O.C. ibid.) quotes the Beit Yosef on the Tur (obviously quoting but not concurring) as citing the Rosh (Rabbi Asher b. Jehiel), who rules that one does don tefillin on Chol HaMoed.
The Mishna Berurah (ad loc.) states that those who don tefillin on Chol HaMoed take them off before Hallel – and some do so after the Kedusha of Shacharit. As for the tefillin of Rabbeinu Tam, which some people regularly put on, he quotes the Pri Megadim who says that they are not to be donned on Chol HaMoed.
The Aruch HaShulchan (ad loc.) stresses that while the Talmud, Rambam, and the Rif do not state whether it is required to put on tefillin on Chol HaMoed, the Rosh (Rabbeinu Asher) and the Mordecai rule that since we are permitted to engage in work, we are also required to don tefillin. He lists numerous other early poskim who rule that doing so is required, as well as those who rule that it is not required. The dispute culminated in the rulings of the Beit Yosef and Rema: The former ruled not to don tefillin on Chol HaMoed, while the latter ruled that we should don tefillin on Chol HaMoed. He then continues: “All the Sefaradim do not put on tefillin [on Chol HaMoed] while all the Ashkenazim do, but without reciting the blessing, and this is the proper way. Many of Gedolei Ha’Acharonim continue the discussion… and therefore each should follow his minhag. There are now many Ashkenazim who do not don tefillin on Chol HaMoed.” (These include, for example, the Gaon of Vilna and the Ba’al Shem Tov, who follow the Zohar.)
The Gaon Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (Iggrot Moshe, Orach Chayyim, Chelek 5, Responsum 24) discusses the matter at great length, including the problem of violating the lo ta’aseh (prohibitory command) cited in Parashat Re’eh (Deuteronomy 14:1) “Lo titgodedu…” expounded as “You shall not form separate sects” (Yevamot 14a). In other words, there is an exhortation against forming different groups, and by extension we are precluded from conducting two different customs within one community, which is mentioned both by the Mishna Berurah and the Aruch HaShulchan. This reference of “lo titgodedu” in the context of our discussion varies from the simple interpretation of the verse as noted by Rashi in Chumash that one is forbidden to make cuts on his body. Rashi, (Yevamot 13b s.v. “lo ta’asu agudot, agudot”) explains the rationale for this command, as doing so would appear as if there are two sets of contradictory Torah laws.
Rabbi Feinstein seems to conclude that as long as the existence of two established customs is generally well-known, a person is allowed not to don tefillin on Chol HaMoed – if that is his own custom – even if he joins the prayer service in a synagogue where it is the custom for the congregants to don tefillin on Chol HaMoed, and he himself prays there because of convenience of location or time. That would not be considered a transgression of lo titgodedu.
Rabbi Feinstein’s reasoning is illustrated in two adjacent teshuvot (Iggrot Moshe, O.C. Chelek 4, Responsa 33, 34). In the first responsum, he permits several families who follow (and practice) Nusach Ashkenaz to join the membership of a congregation that follows Nusach Sefard. In the second case he does not allow individuals to practice customs that are obviously different from the local practice. The first case refers to New York, and would equally apply to other relatively new communities, where there is no defined established custom. The other responsum deals with Paris (several decades ago), where there is an established age-old custom (Nusach Ashkenaz). (Possibly today, where the majority of French Jewry are Sefaradim, he would have ruled differently.) Rabbi Feinstein refers to the Biblical principle of “lo titgodedu,” as well as to the Rabbinic injunction to avoid machloket (dispute), as stated in the Gemara (Pesachim 50).
As regards your question, it is understood that here in America, which is considered a new settlement, there is no set custom and therefore one should follow the custom of one’s family. Notwithstanding, there are some synagogues that take great pains to create separate minyanim, where each can follow his own minhag and yet pray in a synagogue that is convenient to his needs. Yet, of late, we see more and more congregations dispensing of this stricture and for the sake of unity allowing all to pray together.