Let's Define Terms – What is "yeshivish", "MO", etc?

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  • #595966
    MDG
    Participant

    A lot of what we talk about in the CR is comparing different groups, like yeshivish, modern orthodox, etc.

    I would like to know what you consider as criteria to categorize a person in one group or another.

    #753759
    popa_bar_abba
    Participant

    yeshivish- goes to a yeshiva.

    Modern Orthodox- ascribes to modern movements in orthodoxy, like chassidus or the mussar movement.

    #753760

    I would say it’s been about a month since we last treated this subject to exhaustion. So it’s time about time to do it again.

    #753761

    I don’t consider such crieria, period! A jew is a jew. Some tzadikim are very cllose to Hashem…

    #753762
    metrodriver
    Member

    MDG; Yeshivish is generally defined as wearing your hat (Bent up/Bent down.) at all times, including when it’s 100o weather and you’re driving the minivan in your shirtsleeves. Also, you speak “Yeshivish”. MO (Modern Orthodox) is too wide a range to define. And those definitions (& comparisons) that are defined, might offend some people.

    #753763
    working
    Participant

    This is a waste of time.

    We are Jews to those who like us & we are Jews to those who hate us. They don’t differentiate between us; why should we.

    #753764
    SJSinNYC
    Member

    MO generally means ascribing to the concept of Torah U’Mada.

    #753765
    MDG
    Participant

    Derech HaMelech,

    where is the thread?

    #753766
    popa_bar_abba
    Participant

    It is very important on these type of threads to get your insanity in first.

    #753767
    #753768
    gavra_at_work
    Participant

    yeshivish- goes to a yeshiva.

    Modern Orthodox- ascribes to modern movements in orthodoxy, like chassidus or the mussar movement.

    agree and approve.

    #753769

    MDG if you switch the letters around your screenname stands for MILLER GENIUNE DRAFT

    #753770
    Pashuteh Yid
    Member

    The more important question is what is Heimish. Only once that is resolved can the other issues like Brim up vs. Brim down be properly understood.

    #753771
    mytake
    Member

    I hate labels.

    #753772
    popa_bar_abba
    Participant

    I hate (sic) red label.

    #753773
    MDG
    Participant

    i also hate labels, and i wanted to have people articulate their ideas so that the we can discuss them and see where/how labels are (mis)applied and (mis)used.

    #753774
    yid.period
    Member

    … some might even say a yid is a yid… period.

    #753775
    mytake
    Member

    MDG

    “how labels are (mis)applied and (mis)used.”

    I’d add that they’re often deceptive and unfair.

    #753776
    shlishi
    Member

    there is no formal definition for yeshivish since there is yeshivish movement or group. it is a term imposed by others and sometimes assumed. but mo considers itself a movement, so whoever considers themselves part of that movement would fall in that term.

    #753777
    popa_bar_abba
    Participant

    I think we need a better regulated labeling system.

    It is like if apples from Washington had a different grading system than apples from North Carolina.

    We should have a commission which decides on uniform labels, including a label for people who refuse to use our labels.

    #753778
    yenta.morph
    Member

    since there is yeshivish movement or group is or isnt??

    fall in that term howdya do that?

    POPA and what is a movement younger than 200 years ??

    not modern or not Orthodox? I think you (un?)intentionally said something profound.

    #753779

    … some might even say a yid is a yid… period.

    Reb Ahron said “a goy is a goy…is a goy” (‘…’mine)

    #753780
    bpt
    Participant

    Lately, I’ve been describing myself as “flexidish”.

    Means everything and nothing, but it has a catchy ring to it!

    #753782
    hudi
    Participant

    I’m Jewish.

    How bout you?

    #753783
    yenta.morph
    Member

    POPA and what is a movement younger than 200 years ??

    the term Orthodox Judaism is not that old

    #753784
    tro11
    Member

    I don’t like labels. But yeshivish means a fellow wears a black hat on Shabbatot and Yamim Tovim (and I believe some even wear them on weekdays).

    MO incorporates the subtleties of modernism into the religion.

    #753785
    popa_bar_abba
    Participant

    Reb yentel:

    Are you asking me a question?

    I am confused.

    You want to know how I would classify movements in orthodoxy that are less than 200 years old? Like certain more recent chassidus’s?

    I would call them Modern Orthodox. I never restricted my definition. If you want to call them Ultra-Modern-Orthodox, you can. But I don’t think anyone else calls them that.

    #753786
    mewho
    Participant

    i like labels

    michael kors, tahari , prada etc

    #753787

    Anyone to the left of you = goy/M.O.

    Anyone to the right of you = Taliban Judaisim

    You = Exactly what Hashem wants

    #753788
    shlishi
    Member

    sorry, i meant to write there is NO such thing as a yeshivish movement. it is a description imposed on others or assumed. MO on the other hand IS a self defined movement.

    #753789
    MDG
    Participant

    I started this thread in seriousness, but the humor is much better.

    BTW, I heard that the term Orthodox is a modern invention. Before Reform, you were just Jewish. After reform started, they needed a way to differentiate. They were called Reform and therefore the original group therefore needed a name, so they named us Orthodox”.

    #753790
    ItcheSrulik
    Member

    To quote my rebbi, “Anyone to the right of me is a chnyock. Anyone to the left of me is a sheigetz.”

    From now on the only such label I’m willing to use for myself (bli neder) is “levi.”

    #753791
    yenta.morph
    Member

    PBA seems ???? ????? was not in your curriculum.

    ??? ??? ????? ?????

    Surpise PBA confused

    My point was the same as MDG’s

    If you want to call them Ultra-Modern-Orthodox, you can. But I don’t think anyone else calls them that.

    thanks for the permission. And who else today other than PBA calls Chasidim Modern as logical as it may sound.

    #753792
    ItcheSrulik
    Member

    One more from my rebbi:

    An early modern rabbi is one who lived between the renaissance and the beginning of the industrial revolution.

    A modern rabbi is anyone who died between the beginning of the industrial revolution and the 1970s.

    Anyone after that is a postmodern rabbi.

    #753794
    charliehall
    Participant

    “Modern Orthodox- ascribes to modern movements in orthodoxy, like chassidus or the mussar movement. “

    I love it!

    #753795
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    Rav Gifter ZT’L reportedly said “I’m not an Orthodox Jew, I’m a Torah Jew.”

    #753796
    apushatayid
    Participant

    “Member … some might even say a yid is a yid… period.”

    And then there are the yechidei segula, us pushiter yidden 🙂

    #753797
    apushatayid
    Participant

    28 years ago, around the table one day by lunch several guys in the yeshiva were discussing the terms applied to groups of yidden. Back then, if you wore brown pants and a blue shirt (at the same time) you were “greasy”, if you wore a belt (gevald!) You wore a bit to the left. If you were color coordinated, gevald, you were already halfway towards kefira. Times sure have changed. Super greasy (the term yeshivish wasn’t in the vocabulary) guys didn’t take off their hat and jackets in the bathroom or, while playing basketball.

    That was the psak of those bachurim in yeshiva of staten island, all those years ago. 🙂

    #753798
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    so they named us Orthodox

    Which, of course, is very funny, because we are anything but Orthodox.

    The Wolf

    #753799
    metrodriver
    Member

    CharlieHall; You agree with, and love the definiton of “Modern Orthodox” as either Chassidus or the Mussar movement. Let’s be honest. No one defines either of the above mentioned movements today as MO. Mussar is –today– defined as “Yeshivish. (Or, related to it.) And Chassidus. Well. We all know what a splendid reputation it has. Besides. You classify yourself as MO. Do you feel you’re related –spiritually– to either of them?! I davened once in a MO Shul. (No name or location) on a Yom Tov. Never mind. It might be L”H (Lamed Hay).

    #753800
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    CharlieHall; You agree with, and love the definiton of “Modern Orthodox” as either Chassidus or the Mussar movement.

    I did not take Charlie’s “I love it” as agreeing to MO being used commonly that way, but rather, as I did, appreciate the humor in using the literal sense of modern in a way opposite it’s use in the vernacular.

    #753801
    me too
    Member

    I do not know about definitions but here is choice of synonyms

    121 Moby Thesaurus words for “orthodox”:

    *ristian, Orthodox Jew, accepted, accordant, accustomed, acknowledged, admitted, anal, approved, authentic, authoritative, authorized, being done, bourgeois, button-down, canonical, canonist, comme il faut, common, compulsive, concordant, conformable, conformist, conservative, conventional, correct, corresponding, customary, de rigueur, decent, decorous, die-hard, doctrinal, dour, established, evangelical, faithful, firm, fogyish, formal, formalistic, fundamentalist, hard, harmonious, hidebound, impliable, in accord, in keeping, in line, in step, inexorable, inflexible, iron, ironbound, ironclad, ironhanded, kosher, literal, meet, muscle-bound, obdurate, obstinate, of the faith, official, old-line, ordinary, orthodox *ristian, orthodoxical, orthodoxist, pedantic, plastic, popular, precisianistic, prevailing, prevalent, procrustean, proper, purist, puristic, puritan, puritanic, reactionary, received, recognized, regular, relentless, right, rigid, rigorist, rigoristic, rigorous, rockbound, sanctioned, scriptural, seemly, sound, square, standard, stiff, straight, straightlaced, straitlaced, stubborn, stuffy, textual, textualist, textuary, the orthodox, tory, traditional, traditionalist, traditionalistic, true, true believer, true-blue, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, uptight

    Source: Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

    And here is the “authoritative” definition by Wikipedia

    Definitions of modern orthodox judaism on the Web:

    #753802
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    I davened once in a MO Shul. (No name or location) on a Yom Tov. Never mind. It might be L”H (Lamed Hay).

    So, instead of slandering a particular shul, you decided to take a cheap pot-shot at the whole movement.

    The Wolf

    #753803
    charliehall
    Participant

    “Do you feel you’re related –spiritually– to either of them?! “

    Yes.

    #753804
    metrodriver
    Member

    Charliehall; Thank you for the clarification.

    Wolfishmusings; I had no intention of slandering a (Any) particular Shul or a movement, CH”V. I love every Jew. (I only hope, they reciprocate.) Since I see some people’s imagination is running wild, I’ll fill you in on the story. Nothing sinister or of an offending nature transpired. I was made to feel welcome by everyone. But, it was between Mincha and Maariv of the First and Second day Yom Tov. The Shul has scheduled for some boys and Bar Mitzvah bochurim to speak. Since my nephew was one of the speakers, I was invited to attend. But when I heard 3 consecutive speakers relate stories of, and about Chassidim (In the singular.) I said to the person seated next to me (Jokingly, of course.) “A Chussid must be some kind of animal”.

    #753805
    metrodriver
    Member

    Reb Yontl the Male Yenta; or, Reb Yontl Ben Yenta (to Poppa Bar Abba). If I’m not mistaken, the Mussar Movement, founded by R’ Yisroel Salanter is less than 200 Years old. (Approximately 160 Years.). The “Mussar” movement’s principles are built on Middos.(Bein Odom l’Chaveiro.) And self-discipline and deprivation. Chassidus (Which preceded the Mussar movement by about 60-70 Years), in its Generic form worked towards the same goals but with a different approach. Countering the elitist stance of the “Lomdish/Misnagdish” movement, which alienated the uneducated masses (Hamon Am.) who, in their simple ways felt that their form of Avodas Hashem was not appreciated, Chassidus put emphasis on Emuna and Love for Hashem and less importance on studying and knowledge of Shulchan Aruch. It was a revolutionary approach. But under the circumstances, it was the right thing to do. It lifted them up from despair and motivated them to continue with their Emuna.

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