Every country had their own Hakhamim and posqim so in keeping to mesora each one followed his father who followed his father and so on… This is how today we have Sefaradim, Ashkenazim, Temanim, etc… and not just one faction. Each one followed the gedolim of his country and Morocco in particular has its Jewish roots established there from even before the Second Bet haMiqdash. Even the Moroccans and other Sefaradi communities, although both still considered Sefaradim, have significant differences between them. A reason for this, according to the Chief Sefaradi Ribbi of Toronto, e”H Ribbi ‘Amram Assayag s”t, is that:
“The Moroccans (as a community, are the largest Sefaradi community in the world) accepted much less of [the teachings of] the Arizal than the Middle Eastern communities did, and in most cases it is just a slight detail that changes between the Arizal and us (as he says, you never see a Moroccan with 12 halot on his Shabbat table, whereas the Arizal and thus the other Sefaradi communities have this minhag).”
“We’re not as Arizal oriented as the rest of the Sefaradim, the other Sefaradi communities are either very strict Bet Yosef (Shulhan ‘Arukh) or very strict Arizal and in a few places they differ so they have rules regarding this, and we (Moroccans) are not like that, we’re not one nor the other and why? Because we’re one of the oldest communities dating back to even before the Bet Yosef and the Arizal, who lived during the 16th century, we already had such a fundamental Judaism and such rules and such gedolim that lived amongst us that it was almost impossible to all of a sudden change (due to the opinion of another leading poseq of the time, ie. the Arizal). All this because we had the wealth of the expulsion (from Spain) in Morocco so other opinions that came up later did not affect us as they did the other communities.
Another reason for this could be our geographical position, which may have also been a deterrent. Moroccans in history were known as the people of the end of the world (haMa’arab haPenimi) before America, Morocco was the end; Israel being the centre, people travelled, and when they came to morocco there was nothing beyond it. Morocco is known even till today as haMa’arab haPenimi, the farthest point of the West. It could be that many of the minhagim of the Arizal did not reach us simply because of the distance. There are historians who wrote that when they came through Morocco at a certain point in history, the Moroccans did not know that there was such a holiday as Hanuka because no one came and told them that there was a miracle that happened etc…. The miracle of Purim is written in the Tanakh, but Hanuka is not (which means to say that there were Jews in Morocco well before the Second Bet haMiqdash).”
“Why some things were accepted and others not, depended on the situation. Whatever Maran haHida was staunch about [in terms of the minhagim of the Arizal] they accepted. Also there were sadiqim that came by Morocco and established certain minhagim that they felt necessary, but only because they were such holy people were they implemented, I don’t know what Ribbi ‘Amram ben Diwan established in Morocco, but whatever he wanted to establish, nobody would have refused him because he was known as one of the greatest sadiqim that came to Morocco, and since he was from Hebron, he brought the Arizal’s minhagim with him to Morocco, and he probably pushed for certain things to be changed. On the other hand, the Rambam was established in Fez and we do things against him. The Rambam says to not say a berakha in the Hallel on Rosh Hodesh but we do. And it’s not a simple thing, it’s a berakha, if it’s in vain then you are transgressing one of the ten commandments, and no other Sefaradim say a berakha on Rosh Hodesh, only the Moroccans and the Ashkenazim say it. We say it because there were minhaguim from before [the Rambam] that were well established.”
The Moroccans from southern Morocco have the minhag to pronounce the modern day “Vav” (an English “V”) as “Waw” (an English “W”), the “Kuf” with a gutteral “K” (which in English translates to “Q”) and the Het not as a “CH” (like the “Khaf”) but as a gutteral “H”, which in English translates to an “H” with a line underneath it. Finally, the Moroccans also differentiate between the “Bet” and “Vet”, the “Bet” is pronounced like an English “B” and the “Vet” is pronounced like the Spanish “V” (which in English translates to a light “B.”
