That’s what a “polite fiction” is? Something nobody actually believes but pretends they do out of “politeness”.
A polite fiction is a social scenario in which all participants are aware of a truth, but pretend to believe in some alternative version of events to avoid conflict or embarrassment.
I know? But in this context the only way that pretending to believe that ancient Hebrews dressed like modern day Orthodox Jews is to avoid offending someone else who actually thinks that, and if no one does, then who are you trying to avoid offending?
No, not somebody who believes it; somebody who pretends to believe it. It’s part of a “polite fiction” that everyone involved knows it’s a lie.
If the person being talked to does believe a known falsehood, agreeing with them anyway is “humoring them”, not a polite fiction.
It may or may not be true, but I have heard it from multiple sources, all of whom were Modern Orthodox, not secular. So if it is a calumny on some Orthodox people, the call is coming from inside the house.
From Chabad’s own website:
The very first Q&A is:
Hassidic Jews believe that they dress distinctively and that their ancestors also dressed distinctively, as in, they did not adopt the fashions of the people who surrounded them, an adaptation to avoid assimilation.
That doesn’t mean that they believe that the clothes they wear now and that the clothes that their ancestors wore are the same; just that they are both not like the clothes worn by people in the wider society.
Is their contention that other Modern Orthodox people believe this, or that those whacky other Orthodox people believe it? Because if it’s the latter, it’s not exactly inside the house.
Not that it would be all that surprising either way - like I mentioned, I know an Orthodox guy who believed the hole in the sheets myth until he was about to get married.
No, I have heard ModOx people making that claim about Hasidim. So everyone involved is at least in the broad category of “Orthodox”.
I think the point is exactly that it’s a broad category. Groups that look the same to people outside both of them often look very different to those inside either of them; and the desire to distinguish one’s own group from the other may be strengthened by the tendency of others to see them both as the same.
Yeah, generally the Orthodox are pretty good about not insulting each other anywhere where goyim might overhear. So if you aren’t part of that world, it’s easy to see them all as a monolith and overlook how many of them absolutely hate each other for reasons incomprehensible to anyone else.
Yeah, but those are two separate communities. So my point is that you didn’t hear anyone say “in my own community this is a common belief”, which makes sense, because there doesn’t appear to be any community where that’s a common belief.