Benjamin Ricciardi

I just got the most recent prayer book of the British Reform movement. While there are definite S&P elements, Ashkenazi elements seem to predominate.Does anyone know if (and how) the S&P element in British Reform liturgy has waxed or waned over the years?

My wife and I’ll be (God willing) visiting the Philadelphia community for Sh’mini Ngatseret. What’s standard dress for Yom Tob there these days? Do I bring my top hat? Tails? ;)

Is it our custom to be maqpid to do mayyim achronim? (N.B., I mean in post-expulsion Holland, England, Italy, etc., not in old Spain.)

In New York, as far as I can tell from my experience and sources, the custom is not to sit on the floor on Tishang B'Ab (or the meal before).However, in his code, Chakham Toledano writes that the custom is to sit on the floor -- or at most a low stool -- without any note that this is not the S&P practice. Is it indeed the practice to sit on the floor in London and Amsterdam?

Is our custom to be maqpid about not covering the shel rosh?I ask because I've never been able to wear a hat in any non-ridiculous way without covering my t'fillin, and I read in the Ngarukh HaShshulchan yesterday (I know -- ah!! I was reading an Ashkenazi book!) that it's permissible af l'kkhatchilah to cover the shel rosh.

Does the Chief Rabbinate of the Commonwealth have jurisdiction over the British S&P community? If so, when and why did that happen?

Does anyone pronounce gimel rafe like a German or French R? I've read that that was a traditional Dutch pronunciation, but I'm curious if anyone still has it.

Many thanks to our London community at Lauderdale Road and Bevis Marks for a great Shabbat Zakhor and Purim! I hope to be able to make a pilgrimage to another of our communities soon!

I was at the Lauderdale Road synagogue last Sabbath and noticed that mourners there now say qaddish before Ngalenu in Ngarbit and Musaph. Does anyone know when and why the custom was changed?Also, have any of our other communities lost the custom of mourners not reciting those qaddishim?

B'ngezrat Hashem, I'm going to have the good fortune to be in London (visiting family) for the upcoming Shabbat Zachor and Purim (probably at Lauderdale Road for Shabbat and Bevis Marks for Purim). What're the dress conventions in London these days? (Should I pack my top hat? Tails? :)

Question: I've always read and been told that in Western/S&P/European communities, we've never used Ladino/Judezmo/Judeo-Spanish, but rather regular or Spanish and Portuguese.From what little reading on the history I've done, though, it's what we now call Judeo-Spanish that preserves how Spanish was generally spoken in Spain around the time of the expulsion and some time afterward. Doesn't that me...

What's the current practice in our various communities about reading Job on 9 Ab? The reza book currently in use in both America and England has the whole thing printed, but I recall only a few chapters being read in NY when I was there for 9 Ab a few years ago.

Good to see this recognition!

Does anyone have insight into whether we have a particular practice about when exactly to light נרות חנכה?Maimonides and Rabbi Karo both say sunset, but Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan insists that that here *means* dark, and so I was taught in Ashkenazi y'shivoh.(Relatedly, if one lights at dark, do we have a custom about whether to light before or after reading ערבית?)

How do we pronounce the word בָּתֵּי in our tradition -- with a qamats qatan or gadol?And if gadol, why?

What is our custom for how to arrange the hadasim and ngarabot? (I have this problem every year, forgetting. And it doesn't seem to be in the KST -- he talks about how the other Sepharadim do it and the Ashkenazim, but he doesn't identify any shittah as S-P, as far as I can tell.)

Cross-posted from the Liturgy group:In America, our s'lichot for Elul clock in at over 50 pages in the de Sola Pool -- considerably longer than either the English or Dutch practices.Does anyone know why/how they became so long in the American use?

I'm pleased to report that, God willing, I'll be in Amsterdam the weekend of 28-30 August! Other than the Esnoga itself, is there anything of S&P significance I should be sure to see?

Does S&P safrut differ from that of other Sepharadim?

Hello all,I'm going to be studying in Berlin for nearly all of July and August and was looking into being in London the weekend of 8-9 August. If there's anyone in the London community here who might be willing to have a guest (who can perhaps bring some delicacy from Berlin to his host), please send me a message.Thanks!

Question: Does anyone know of a convention for distinguishing orally between רבה and רבא, since we traditionally pronounce the ב identically with or without a דגש (and also don't generally realise in our pronunciation the consonant-doubling indicated by a דגש חזק)?

I'm wondering what people's impression is of what the historical and current S&P practice(s) is (are) about how to dress on פורים. (The כתר שם טוב doesn't seem to address it.) Personally, I've always preferred the (now rare) custom of wearing לבוש יום טוב (at least to synagogue) over that of wearing silly costumes, but I'm curious about what 'the מנהג' is.

What is the general S&P practice regarding leather shoes on the major fast days? From what I've gathered, the practice is to take them off at home and in the synagogue, but to wear them on the street (because it's somewhat risible not to be wearing leather shoes on the street and one need not observe the practice of not wearing leather shoes if it would lead to mockery?), but I wanted to poll here...

What is the practice of S&P communities regarding שעות זמניות? (I hate to put it this way, since it's a terribly Ashkenazi-acharon-centric way of putting a question that must go back millennia, but: like the Magen Abraham, or like the G'ra?)

Hi all! Does anyone know of a source for recordings of whole services (e.g., Weekday Afternoon Prayers) other than the Revd. Halfon Benarroch Archive? I know of several sites that have various songs, hymns, snippets of liturgy, etc., but nowhere else for just comprehensive recordings of the Nusach.