Dor Daim and Halacha

Question

Do the Dor Daim (generally Yemenite Jewish people who deny the divine origin of kabbalah), have any halacha differently from the rest of the Orthodox Jewish world? I understand that they also generally reject the Shulchan Aruch and only follow Rambam’s Mishneh Torah. Are there any examples of customs they have that are different from the rest of the Jewish world?

Answer 1

Are there any examples of customs they have that are different from the rest of the Jewish world?

There are, some examples can be found below, for example the way Yemenite Jews are using the Shofar. They blast the sound in the way it sounds like a wailing, instead of the accepted practice of short sounds that sound like crying.

Shofar blast sound

The accepted practice of the teruah shofar blast is like the sound of crying, i.e., short, broken sounds. The Yemenite custom is like wailing, such that the sound is not truncated but trembles and rattles, and all the tremors are considered one sound. Upon examining we find that the teruah in Ashkenaz and Sephard is similar to an outburst of crying, which is truncated uncontrollably, whereas the teruah in Yemen is like a wailing which is done as an expression of crying and mourning in a controlled manner, as is customary among Yemenite immigrants, to have greater control over emotions (Peninei Halakha: Yamim Nora’im 4: 11).

The Yemenite immigrants also are accustomed to raise the tekiah and the teruah at the end, and one who pays attention understands the intention is to express in the tekiah the height of joy, and in the teruah, the height of sorrow.

The Kosher Grasshopper

Flying insects are forbidden to eat, including all species that have three pairs of legs and wings, including wasps, bees, flies, crickets, mantis and grasshoppers. Only four species of grasshoppers are permitted by the Torah, and they have two signs from the Torah, and two signs from the words of our Sages (Leviticus 11:20-21; Chulin, 59a). However, in all the communities the tradition was lost with regards to grasshoppers, and only in Yemen and Morocco, where grasshoppers were prevalent, was the tradition maintained regarding the kosher grasshopper, which is the locust that multiplies in huge flocks.

Torah reading on Shabbos and the weekday

When our Sages enacted that seven people be called up to the Torah on Shabbat, and three on a weekday (Megillah 21a), they intended that each person called to the Torah would read the Torah himself. However, since the days of the Rishonim, in order to prevent embarrassment and unpleasantness of those who do not know how to read well, the custom is to appoint a “baal koreh” who would read the Torah for everyone, and the called-up person would only recite a bracha on his aliyah.

However, the Yemenite immigrants, to this day, still practice the ancient custom in which every person reads the portion when he is called-up to the Torah. The observance of this custom is one of the reasons for the proficiency of many Yemenite immigrants in Torah and grammar (Peninei Halakha 22: 5).

Taken from the article "The Customs that Survived Thanks to Yemenite Jews"