minhag

minhag, in Judaism, any religious custom that has acquired the legal binding force of Halakhah, the Jewish legal tradition. Because Halakhah itself can be considered to be based on custom, a minhag can come into force even though it presents an apparent contradiction to previous laws. The problem of minhagim has been a major subject for Judaic scholars.

There are two concepts closely related to that of minhag. A local minhag (minhag ha-makom) is a custom that is binding upon a specific Jewish community. A liturgical minhag is a Jewish religious rite that has developed in a particular locality. Thus, the acceptance by the Ashkenazi Jews of many elements of the Palestinian minhag and by the Sephardic Jews of many elements of the Babylonian minhag resulted in distinctive rites, which are also referred to as minhagim.