Shmendrik, why take tradition only back to “the bais hamedresh in Villna (sic), in Lodz, Lublin, Rastov etc.”? Why not back to the mellah in Iran, where half the worshippers were blind and most of the others were illiterate? Why not back to the Gemara in Megilla, which allowed whole villages to reschedule Purim for market day because no one back home could lain the megilla? Or to the Gemara in Rosh Hashana that describes the “people in the fields,” who didn’t know how to daven at all but might get some benefit from hearing the shofar?
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