The Mishnah (Gitten 59.) states, "The Kohen receives the first aliyah, a Levi gets the second, and then comes the Yisrael. This was established [by Chazal] for the sake of peace." Rashi explains, "The chachamim established this order to prevent fights. Because, now a person [a Yisrael or a Levi] can't say, 'I want the first aliyah!'" The kohen gets the first aliyah; there is nothing to debate.
Chazal established a hierarchy, so there should be peace in the beis medresh.
Reb Yosef Shaul Nathanson zt'l (the Shoel u'Meishiv) was the Rav of Lemberg, and in his beis medresh, they davened nusach Ashkanez. In the summer, the Lemberger Rav would go with his community to the Carpathian mountains to spend the summer in Skolia. In Skolia, the nusach was Sefard, as the residents of Skolia were chassidim.
One Friday night, the chazan was a chassid from Skolia. He davened nusach Sefard, and the Lemberg summer guests complained.
The first uproar came when the chazan said פורקניה ויצמח in kaddish. The Lemberg congregants heckled and protested. Reb Yosef Shaul Nathanson raised his hand, signaling they should remain silent.
The tefillah continued, and it was peaceful until they reached the end of Kabalas Shabbos. At this point, chassidim say כגוונא and the Ashkenazic custom is to say מדליקין במה. The chazan began כגוונא and the summer guests from Lemberg protested.
The people of Skolia replied, "This is our beis medresh. Every week we say כגוונא. Why should this week be different?" The Lemberg community responded, "We are the majority in the summer. There are more people from Lemberg here than Skolia. Furthermore, your parnassah comes from us because we rent your summer houses. And don’t forget that we donated much money to build this beis medresh. What you do the entire year is your business, but in the summer, it should be Ashkenaz."
Reb Yosef Shaul silenced the community once again and ruled that תדיר תדיר ושאינו תדיר קודם, the more common custom prevails. Throughout the year, this beis medresh davens nusach Sefard, so that is how they should daven in the summer, too.
After the tefillah, Reb Yosef Shaul spoke with the community to teach them the halachos of these matters and the hashkafah, the correct outlook. He said, "A beis medresh is a place where we gather to give honor to Hashem. The yetzer hara tries to instigate machlokes to ruin this holy atmosphere. He tells the Lemberg community to demand that the shul say במה מדליקין. Thereby, he is מדליק, he ignites the flames of machlokes in the beis medresh. The community of Skolia responds in the same, bickering way because the yetzer hara incites them to insist that we say כגוונא. (The translation of כגוונא is "in the same way," and the people of Skolia answered back in the same bickering tone as the Lemberger guests that it must be their way.) But you can be sure, my brothers, that this wasn't the intention of the early chachamim who established these tefillos. The goal is peace, not machlokes.
"But what can we do? We have been in galus for a long time, and disputes like these happen. We should daven for Moshiach because when Moshiach comes, we won't say פורקניה ויצמח anymore. And Moshiach will tell us whether to say כגוונא or מדליקין במה. If he tells us to say כגוונא, it will be as we say in this prayer: באחד אחד למהויא דיליה כגוונא that there will be complete unity among Yidden. And if Moshiach tells us to say מדליקין במה, we will be מדליק, ignite the fire of hislahavus and the fire of love, not the fire of machlokes."
Reb Yosef Shaul concluded, "We are in Skolia, a chassidishe city, so I said a chassidic vort. But now I will approach the matter from a halachic perspective: When someone from Skolia comes to Lemberg, he should say כגוונא silently to himself, as he is accustomed to say at home. And when the people of Lemberg visit Skolia for the summer, they should say מדליקין במה silently to themselves. That's what I do. When I'm in Skolia, I say מדליקין במה silently. And if someone from Skolia is in Lemberg and he wants to say מדליקין במה together with the congregation, he can do so. And if someone from Lemberg wants to say כגוונא together with the congregation of Skolia, he can do so. I accept "these sins" on my shoulders. The main thing, dear brothers, is that there be peace among you. If there will be peace, the nusach isn't so important, and the Satan (the yetzer hara) will be silenced."
Some years later, in 1908, a similar machlokes broke out in Hamburg, Germany. For many years, the Hamburg beis medresh davened nusach Ashkenaz, but as the demographics of the city changed due to the migration of many Polish Yidden, the community was now primarily chasidim, and they wanted to change the nusach to Sefard.
The question was, should the beis medresh continue in nusach Ashkenez, as this was how the beis medresh was established, and there were still members of the beis medresh who preferred nusach Ashkenaz, or should they adjust to the new reality, and since the majority wanted to daven Sefard, they should change the nusach to Sefard.
The gabaim, representatives of both sides of the debate, came to the Berzhaner Rav zt'l (the Maharasham) and asked him to rule on this matter. The Berzhaner Rav told them the story of the Lemberger Rav (stated above) and that the emphasis must be on peace because that is more important than the nusach. And then, the Berzhaner Rav helped them reach a compromise that satisfied both sides. The gaba'im made a kinyan, expressing a promise that they accept the conditions of the compromise. This is how the Berzhaner Rav maintained peace in the Hamburg kehillah.
