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January 15, 2025

Music Forms the Rich, Diverse, and Contested Heart of Jewish Custom

Melody and minhag.

In rabbinic literature, minhag, or custom, is often contrasted to halakhah, or law, with the latter being binding—even as the former often has a powerful legal status of its own. From ancient times, such customs also distinguished local and regional communities from one another, especially when it came to liturgy. Matt Austerklein writes:

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January 15, 2025

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