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5. "Torah or Toyrah": Language and the Modern Orthodox to Black Hat Continuum
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111 When Orthodox Jews create a profile on the popular online matchmaking service Frumster.com, they must select a category that describes their religiosity . These categories include four that are seen as existing on a continuum from least to most strict in observance and least to most distinct from general American society: Modern Orthodox Liberal, Modern Orthodox Machmir (strict), Yeshivish Modern, and Yeshivish Black Hat. One of the questions Frumster participants are asked is: “What does [this category] mean to you?” Responses vary widely, mentioning individuals’ practices of kashrus and negia, specific yeshivas in Israel, New York, Baltimore, and elsewhere, and attitudes toward secular education. Some on the Black Hat end of the spectrum mention daas torah, the notion that rabbis with expertise in traditional texts have a high level of wisdom on life matters. And some on the Modern Orthodox end of the spectrum mention the importance of being part of the secular world by attending concerts and movies. In all categories a common response includes something about serving God or following commandments. For example, a woman who identifies as Modern Orthodox Liberal defines that as “Shomer Shabbat, Kashrut, Baal Chesed” (observing Sabbath, dietary laws, and doer of good deeds). And a man who identi fies as Yeshivish Black Hat defines that as “Toras Chaim and Ahavas Chesed” (living Torah and love of good deeds). These two responses are similar in content , but they differ in form. The Modern Orthodox respondent, a woman who identifies her ethnicity as Ashkenazi, uses Sephardi or Israeli pronunciation (Shabbat, kashrut), while the Black Hat respondent, a man who identifies his ethnicity as “Sephardi (Moroccan/North African),” uses Ashkenazi pronunciation (Toras, Ahavas). These two Orthodox Jews may have some similarities in their views of religious observance, and they both decided to use Hebrew 5 “Torah or Toyrah” Language and the Modern Orthodox to Black Hat Continuum 112 CHAPTER 5 loanwords in their response. But they made different choices in how to render the Hebrew letter © (thaw/tav). These choices were not in line with their ancestral origins but rather with their self-reported location on the continuum from Modern Orthodox Liberal to Yeshivish Black Hat. This small example shows the importance of language—in consort with beliefs, observance, and other cultural practices—in the presentation and perception of Orthodox identities. FFBs use subtle differences in pronunciation, word choice, and grammar to indicate their location along the Modern Orthodox to Black Hat continuum. When newcomers become Orthodox, they also participate in this system of linguistic self-identification. The Orthodox Continuum The continuum is well known not only in community discourse, as the Frumster example indicates, but also in scholarhip.1 Researchers explain how Orthodox Jews compare themselves to other Orthodox Jews based on the stringency of their observance and their openness toward non-Orthodox and non-Jewish society and culture. Ayala Fader explains how the continuum figures prominently in the discourse of Hasidic Jews: “The use of modern as a marker of difference focuses on activities or objects which blur the borders separating Jews from gentiles. This is particularly relevant for and evident in the presentation of bodies and exposure of minds. It is, thus, particularly around issues of modest dress and access to certain types of media, literature or other forms of knowledge that different kinds of Jews may be located on a continuum which spans modern to the most frim, religious.”2 The Bobov and other Hasidim she worked with position themselves not quite on the right end of the continuum: they see themselves as more “with it” than the “nebby” (nerdy) Satmar Hasidim.3 We also see similar discourse on the other end of the continuum. Samuel Heilman’s study Synagogue Life details how members of a Modern Orthodox synagogue use this spectrum to compare themselves to the other Jews in their neighborhood. They see themselves as more “frum” than Reform and Conservative Jews and less “crazy” than more traditional Yeshiva Jews.4 The Orthodox Jews I met in my various research sites also referenced this continuum. In the (mostly Modern) Orthodox group at Columbia University, students talked about marginal community members being toward the right end of the spectrum by using the term “black hat,” or just “black”: “Sometimes we get a few black-hatters” or “They were more black than Modern Orthodox.” A principal of a school in which teachers and administrators are Chabad Hasidim contrasted his community with a Modern Orthodox...