What does the hashkafic label (chassidish, yeshivish, MO, LW, RW, conservative, reform, etc) you apply to yourself mean to you? What makes you that?

I've noticed especially in certain demographics, people will label themselves a certain way but then not fit the stereotypical behavior for that group. Oftentimes, they are more to the left but come from that kind of a family and so continue to use that label. Can one really be a certain hashkafah by birth, and continue to lay claim to it even if they don't exactly conform to their community's standards? Does this mean they plan to go back to it later?

If you consider yourself a certain hashkafah and apply the label to yourself, but don't fit commonly held stereotypes or community standards, what, in your mind, makes you that hashkafah?


(Please note, this is not a discussion about what you feel makes OTHER people a certain hashkafah, or trying to define labels that you do not apply to yourself. I'm specifically interested in why people call themselves the things they do, and how they fit into the typical box for that label.)

I label myself Machine Wash Cold; Line Dry.

But seriously, I call myself a Centrist because I think that MO does have some unfortunate connotations despite melech's attempt to reclaim the term. I see MO as being on the left and yeshivish as being on the right and myself in the center. I carefully follow halacha (avoiding chumras and kullahs); I am also strongly Zionistic; I believe in secular education, and I have no problem with the judicious enjoyment of secular culture.

I think by my community's religious standards I fit right in. Personality-wise, maybe not so much. but also . Centrists can be so boring. MO's are much more exciting.

i feel in between two labels/camps.

That's right. Labels are for shirts.

For instance, I label myself as "Jewish" and "frum"...

Yeshivish means to me that I am part of the yeshivish community. My family, education and choices make me that.

Depends how far they "don't exactly conform".

Ideals, other, more important "stereotypes", and community standards.

Correct. A person's label is about their clothing not their actions.

Are the prerequisite cliches out of the way now?

People DO use labels, and I'm addressing myself specifically to those individuals, because of the disconnect I've so often noticed between one's label and how they conduct themselves vis-a-vis their label/community's standards/stereotypes.

For example, if someone calls himself chassidish, yet doesn't follow a specific chassidus or rebbe, or d9esn't keep commonly accepted chassidishe standards (ie, c"y), what makes him chassidish? The fact that he was raised that way or that he follows certain chassidishe minhagim that he grew up with?

If a woman marries a husband further to the right than her, and adopts certain customs from him while remaining more to the left herself, can and does she lay claim to the rightist label?



Which aspect do you feel makes "yeshivish" fit you best - that you grew up with it, that you're a part of that community, or that your basic behavior and beliefs is typical of yeshivishe people?

All of those.

I am MO because I clearly am. My views on issues such as the place of women within Orthodoxy, or how to relate to the not yet seemingly halachically observant, or to nonJews or to Medinat Yisrael Reishit Tzemichat Ge'ulateinu or to the secular state or to secular education or to da'at torah etc etc etc places me within that camp. Who cares what others see me as, although I can't imagine anyone would ever place me anywhere else.
It's not my problem that those who hold MO beneath their religious contempt mistakenly believe that it has implications for commitment to sincere avodat Hashem. Even so, it would be absurd for anyone to place me in any other camp or to apply a different label.

I use the labels I do because human relationships are spatial and taxonomical in nature. Saying I follow rationalist traditions (i.e. Biladi Yemenite and Western Sephardic) facilitates placing myself at a point within the social network. It also provides a frame of reference from which I interact with others and through which others are able to approach me. Opting to refer to myself as a mitsvotero, traditional Sepharade, or what-have-you, in place of an Orthodox label further concretes my identity in a spatial manner. I clearly do not fit within the Ashkenazic taxonomy of religious perspective, and I opt to make this clearn. Do I fit within the taxonomy of the culture and perspective with which I identify? I believe that I do, and I attempt to behave accordingliy.

That's an excellent way of putting it. People can take one look at me and categorize me (albeit incorrectly) but that is to my benefit.