Nusach (properly nósach) primarily means "text" or "version", in other words the correct wording of a religious text. Thus the nusach tefillah is the text of the prayers, either generally or as used by a particular community. In common use nusach has come to signify the entire liturgical tradition of the community, including the musical rendition. It is narrower than minhag, which can refer to custom in any field, not necessarily that of communal prayer.
Both nusach and minhag can thus be used for liturgic rite or liturgic tradition, though sometimes a nusach appears to be a subdivision of a minhag or vice versa; see different Jewish rites and popular siddurim under Siddur. In general one must pray according to one's "nusach of origin", unless one has formally joined a different community and accepted its minhag. (Perisha rules that if one abandons a nusach that has been accepted universally by the wider Jewish community, his prayer is disqualified and must be repeated using the accepted nusach: Arba'ah Turim, Orach Chayim, 120 ad loc).
The main segments of traditional Judaism, as differentiated by nusach (broadly and narrowly), are:
- Nusach Ashkenaz: the general Ashkenazi rite of non-Chasidim. Can be subdivided into:
- Minhag Ashkenaz (German rite)
- Minhag Polin/Lita (Polish/Lithuanian/Prague rite)
- Nusach Sefard or Nusach Ari (Ashkenazi Chasidic rite, heavily influenced by the teachings of Sephardi Kabbalists)
- Minhag Sefaradi: in general refers to the various Sephardi liturgies, but also to obligation/permissibility of Kabbalistic elements within the rite. Versions of this are:
- The Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Rite
- Nusach Morocco (Moroccan rite: there are differences between the Spanish-Moroccan and the Arab-Moroccan customs)
- Nusach ha-Chida (The Chida's rite, named after Rabbi Chaim Joseph David Azulai: often used by North African Jews)
- Nusach Livorno (Sephardic rite from nineteenth-century editions printed in Italy, often used by North African Jews)
- Minhag Edot hamizrach: often used to mean the Baghdadi rite, is more or less influenced by the Sephardi minhag.
- Nusach Teiman (see Yemenite Jews): can be subdivided into:
- Minhag Baladi (original Yemenite rite)
- Minhag Shami (influenced by Sephardic rite)
- Palestinian minhag
- Minhag Italiani and Minhag Benè Romì, see Italian Jews
- Minhag Romania, the rite of the Romaniotes, that is the original Greek Jewish community as distinct from the Sephardim
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