There's a word that gets knocked around a lot. Nusakh. It can mean so many things that it has lost all meaning. For example, it can mean the liturgy of a particular part of the world, like Nusakh Romani, or Nusakh Israeli. That includes any regional or country-specific text. If you think about the dreidle you'll see that in Israel the dreidle has a peh instead of a shin, because in Israel the sentence is "Nes gadol haya poh" -- a great miracle happened here. And other changes between countries or regions just grew up over many centuries.
Nusakh can also refer to denominational differences: Reform nusakh refers to God as "m'khayei ha-kol" -- the One who gives life to everything -- as opposed to "m'khayei mei-tim" -- who gives life to the dead. So here the nusakh reflects a theological difference. Orthodox nusakh - whether Ashkenazi or Sephardi - doesn't include the matriarchs. Yet.
In the case of the music of a service, the word nusakh means something entirely different. So between now and next week (or so) pay attention to the music of the services that you attend, and I'll add the musical bit next blog!
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