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Nusach Sefard is the name for various forms of the Jewish siddur
Siddur

A siddur is a Judaism prayer book, containing a set order of List of Jewish prayers and blessings. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as we know it today has developed....
, designed to reconcile Ashkenazi customs
Minhag

Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, Nusach , refers to the traditional order and form of the Jewish services....
 (Hebrew: ???? "Custom", pl. minhagim) with the kabbalistic
Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mysticism aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that are meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator deity with the finite and mortal universe of His creation....
 customs of the Ari
Isaac Luria

Rabbi Isaac Luria was a Judaism mystic in Safed. His name today is attached to all of the mystic thought in the town of Safed in 16th century Ottoman Palestine....
. To this end it has incorporated the wording of Nusach Edot Mizrach, the prayer book of Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews

Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
, into certain prayers. Nusach Sefard is used nearly universally by Hasidim
Hasidic Judaism

Hasidic Judaism is a type of Orthodox Judaism or Haredi Judaism Orthodox Judaism religious movement. Some refer to Hasidic Judaism as Hasidism, and the adjective chasidic / hasidic applies....
, as well as by some other Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews

File:Juden 1881.JPGAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish ethnic divisions of the Rhineland in the west of Germany....
: it has not gained significant acceptance by Sephardi Jews.






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Nusach Sefard is the name for various forms of the Jewish siddur
Siddur

A siddur is a Judaism prayer book, containing a set order of List of Jewish prayers and blessings. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as we know it today has developed....
, designed to reconcile Ashkenazi customs
Minhag

Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, Nusach , refers to the traditional order and form of the Jewish services....
 (Hebrew: ???? "Custom", pl. minhagim) with the kabbalistic
Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mysticism aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that are meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator deity with the finite and mortal universe of His creation....
 customs of the Ari
Isaac Luria

Rabbi Isaac Luria was a Judaism mystic in Safed. His name today is attached to all of the mystic thought in the town of Safed in 16th century Ottoman Palestine....
. To this end it has incorporated the wording of Nusach Edot Mizrach, the prayer book of Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews

Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
, into certain prayers. Nusach Sefard is used nearly universally by Hasidim
Hasidic Judaism

Hasidic Judaism is a type of Orthodox Judaism or Haredi Judaism Orthodox Judaism religious movement. Some refer to Hasidic Judaism as Hasidism, and the adjective chasidic / hasidic applies....
, as well as by some other Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews

File:Juden 1881.JPGAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish ethnic divisions of the Rhineland in the west of Germany....
: it has not gained significant acceptance by Sephardi Jews. Each Hasidic dynasty uses its own version of the Nusach Sefard siddur, often with great divergence between different versions.

Prayers and customs


Some versions are nearly identical to Nusach Ashkenaz
Nusach

Nusach is a concept in Judaism that has two distinct meanings. One is the style of a prayer service ; another is the melody of the service depending on when the service is being conducted....
, while others come far closer to Nusach Edot Mizrach
Nusach

Nusach is a concept in Judaism that has two distinct meanings. One is the style of a prayer service ; another is the melody of the service depending on when the service is being conducted....
: most versions fall somewhere in between. All versions incorporate the customs of the Ari
Isaac Luria

Rabbi Isaac Luria was a Judaism mystic in Safed. His name today is attached to all of the mystic thought in the town of Safed in 16th century Ottoman Palestine....
. Jews who follow Nusach Sefard adopt certain Sephardi customs, such as not wearing tefillin
Tefillin

Tefillin, , also called phylacteries, are a pair of black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with bible verses. The hand-tefillin, or shel yad, is worn by Jews wrapped around the arm, hand and fingers, while the head-tefillin, or shel rosh, is placed above the forehead....
 on the middle days of Pesach and Sukkot
Sukkot

Sukkot , is a Hebrew Bible pilgrimage Jewish holiday that occurs in autumn on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei . The holiday lasts seven days, including Chol Hamoed....
. However they usually also observe Ashkenazi customs such as avoiding kitniyot
Kitniyot

Kitniyot, qit'niyyoth are a category of foods defined by Halakha which Ashkenazi Jews refrain from eating during the Bible festival of Passover....
 on Pesach.

Nusach Sefard is often distinguished from Nusach Ari
Nusach Ari

Nusach Ari means, in a general sense, any prayer rite following the usages of Rabbi Isaac Luria, the AriZal, in the 16th century, and, more particularly, the version of it used by Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Judaism....
. Nusach Ari is used by Chabad
Chabad

*Chabad is an acronym for Chochmah, Binah, and Da'at, the three levels of Sefirot related to cognition according to the Kabbalah.*Chabad-Strashelye, Strashelye is a branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism....
 Hasidim, and includes some features of the traditional Ashkenazi rite as well as some of the meditations of Shalom Sharabi
Shalom Sharabi

Sar Shalom Sharabi , also known as the Rashash, the Shemesh or Ribbi Shalom Mizra?i deyedi`a Sharabi , was a Yemenite Jews Rabbi, Halachist, Chazzan and Kabbalah....
. Nusach Sefard exists in several versions, which may follow the Sephardic prayer book either more closely or less closely than Nusach Ari, and is used by other Hasidic groups as well as by some non-Hasidic Jews.

The Anshei Sefard synagogues are notable for being non-Hasidic synagogues that use the rite, typically the version found in Artscroll
ArtScroll

ArtScroll is an imprint of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Judaism perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Brooklyn, New York, New York City....
 Nusach Sefard siddurim.

History


It is generally held that every Jew is bound to observe the mitzvot (commandments of Judaism) by following the customs appropriate to his or her family origin: see Minhag
Minhag

Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, Nusach , refers to the traditional order and form of the Jewish services....
. For this reason a number of rabbis disapprove of the adoption of Sephardic customs by Ashkenazi Jews.

However, it was a common Kabbalistic
Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mysticism aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that are meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator deity with the finite and mortal universe of His creation....
 belief that the Sephardic rite, especially in the form used by Isaac Luria
Isaac Luria

Rabbi Isaac Luria was a Judaism mystic in Safed. His name today is attached to all of the mystic thought in the town of Safed in 16th century Ottoman Palestine....
, has more spiritual potency than the Ashkenazi, and that, while in general one should keep to one's minhag of origin, this rite reaches a "thirteenth gate" in Heaven for those who do not know their own tribe. Many Eastern Jewish communities, such as the Persian Jews
Persian Jews

|||}Persian Jews or Iranian Jews are Jews historically associated Iran, which was known internationally as Persia until 1935.Judaism is one of the oldest religions practiced in Iran and dates back to the late biblical times....
 and the Shami Yemenites
Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen , on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. Virtually the entire Jewish population emigrated from Yemen between June 1949 and September 1950 in what was deemed Operation Magic Carpet ....
, accordingly adopted the Sephardic rite with Lurianic additions in preference to their previous traditional rites.

In the same way, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many Kabbalistic groups in Europe adopted the Lurianic-Sephardic rite in preference to the Ashkenazi. This was however the custom of very restricted circles, and did not come into widespread public use until the rise of Hasidism
Hasidic Judaism

Hasidic Judaism is a type of Orthodox Judaism or Haredi Judaism Orthodox Judaism religious movement. Some refer to Hasidic Judaism as Hasidism, and the adjective chasidic / hasidic applies....
.

Nusach Sefard, with its variant Nusach Ari
Nusach Ari

Nusach Ari means, in a general sense, any prayer rite following the usages of Rabbi Isaac Luria, the AriZal, in the 16th century, and, more particularly, the version of it used by Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Judaism....
, became universal among Hasidic Jews. One consequence of this was that, before the foundation of the State of Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 and in the early years of the State, it was the predominant rite used by Ashkenazim in the Holy Land, with the exception of certain pockets of traditional Lithuanian Jews
Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanian Jews are Ashkenazi Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania .Lithuania was historically home to a large and influential Jewish community that was almost entirely eliminated during the Holocaust: see Holocaust in Lithuania....
. One reason for this was that Eretz Yisrael was regarded as part of the Sephardic world, so that it was felt that new immigrants should adapt to the local rite. In recent decades, following the immigration of many Ashkenazi Jews from America, the traditional Ashkenazi rite has regained a strong following.

There is also a small group of Sephardi Jews that observe the customs of Ashkenazi Jews, hence giving them the name "Nusach Ashkenaz".