'לקט קצת מנהגי ימים נוראים - ג

A collection of various points related to the ימי הרחמים והרצון הבאים עלינו לטובה:

1

Today we will discuss a peculiar but sensible מנהג of ישיבה תורה ודעת [1] that the בעל תפלה sits for היה עם פיפיות שלוחי עמך ישראל (following עלינו in the חזרת השץ of מוסף) and a member of the congregation rises and says (or sings) the פיוט (until ואתה תשמע מן השמים) following which the בעל תפלה takes back over.

I have not seen this practiced elsewhere; however, considering the very content of this פיוט, namely a תפלה on behalf of שלוחי ציבור worldwide (and also considering that the בעל תפלה could use a well-deserved break), this indeed makes much sense and would seem to be very appropriate.

2

We mentioned last year that the תקיעות before מוסף are referred to in the halachic literature as תקיעות דמיושב (sitting תקיעות) while the תקיעות during מוסף are referred to as דמעומד (standing תקיעות). Perhaps readers will enlighten me, but I am not aware of any community that actually sits during תקיעות דמיושב. If so, why are they referred to as מיושב in the first place?

חיי אדם [2] explains that the main תקיעות are the ones that take place during מוסף. Once חזל instituted תקיעות before מוסף - which are referred to as מיושב because the congregation is still sitting as they have not yet stood up for מוסף - in order to confuse the שטן [3], so then they also instituted that these תקיעות should be done properly, with ברכות etc. - as a result of which we end up technically fulfilling our obligation with those תקיעות, so therefore we stand for those as well.

2.2

Mendy Meyer shared with me that during the תקיעות דמעומד in Breuer's the מקריא announces שברים and תרועה separately, thereby giving the תוקע a short breath. Zachary Edinger (shamash at Shearith Israel) noted that this is the Spanish-Portuguese מנהג as well. This is another interesting crossover between Western אשכנזים and Western ספרדים (a topic that I hope to explore in greater depth in the future).

[1] מנהגי ישיבה תורה ודעת, ראש השנה אות לח, וראה גם שם יום כפור אות כ. The same arrangement is practiced for ויאתיו; it is not clear to me what the specific connection is between the two פיוטים that would cause such a מנהג to be established.

[2] שבת ומועדים כלל קמב אות יז

[3] This is accomplished as follows: we do not want the שטן to prosecute us while we blow שופר during מוסף. Evidently, he thinks that this is the only time we blow; so, where he suddenly hears us blowing before מוסף - he thinks משיח must have arrived - after all, why else would we blow שופר before מוסף?! - at which point his job is finished and הקב"ה will eliminate him. (How and why the שטן hasn't caught on to our trick after so many years is beyond me - but, if חזל say the trick works, then so be it.)

The תקיעות before מוסף are still referred to as מיושב because, theoretically, one can decide to fulfill their obligation with תקיעות דמעומד exclusively, in which case they have the (theoretical) option to sit for תקיעות דמיושב. (See מ"ב תקפה:ב)