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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>From: Micha Berger <A href="mailto:micha@aishdas.org">micha@aishdas.org</A><BR></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>>>My blog entry was partly about where this shift came from --
how did a<BR>word that in the Lithuanian Yeshiva was considered derogatory come
to mean<BR>something entirely different in today's modern Yiddish and Yinglish?
<<<BR>-- <BR>Micha
Berger
<BR>micha@aishdas.org
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<DIV>I unequivocally reject your premise that the word "frum" was
ever used as a derogatory term in the Litvishe Yehiva world,
except when used sarcastically. It's like saying about someone who did something
stupid, "Oh that was really /brilliant/" and then people start thinking that
"brilliant" is a general term of opprobrium. </DIV>
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<DIV>It is a perversion of the language and of our culture (i.e., the Torah
world) to use the word "frum" as an insult, unless you are saying it
sarcastically, to put down someone who is either ostentatiously, sanctimoniously
pious or is in some way hypocritical, someone whose piety is not genuine.
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<DIV>Unless there is a specific context to indicate otherwise, the word "frum"
by itself is /not/ a derogatory word and never was used that way in previous
generations. As you yourself noted, "Fruma" has been and still is used as
a girl's name. Do you know anyone who would name their daughter
"Hypocrite"?</DIV>
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<DIV>The answer to your question is another question: When did the word
"frum" stop meaning "Torah observant" and start meaning "sanctimonious,
hypocritical, concerned with externals but not tocho kabaro"? I would
suggest that that change came about when a certain subset of observant Jews
stopped being genuinely frum in their kishkas and started being more concerned
with externals than internals. Around 1975. Could be there was an
advance storm front already a little before that. But even so, the
sarcastic use of the term "frum" is its secondary and not its primary
meaning.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><STRONG>--Toby Katz<BR>================</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>_____________________</FONT></DIV></DIV>
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