To Moderator 80,
Yes, many modern orthodox jews do wear denim jeans, sneakers, go to college, and read novels. I do all of that.
But what about Chareidi Jews? Don’t they wear western style suits and ties, wear Italian brand -name hats and shoes, drive American cars, use modern electronics, live in modern housing, speak the vernacular? You are not quite the Amish that you hope or claim to be- you also engage modernity to some degree, as well as reject it to some degree.
Charedi jews have also modernized, just not as much as the so called Modern orthodox. Don’t you think that if the chasam sofer heard the shiurim given in lakewood yeshiva today, he would be aghast , because they;re given in ENGLISH, and he and his followers absolutely refused to recognize the legitimacy of any Rabbi who spoke to his congregation in the vernacular? My bet is that some of his followers, if around today, might throw around some denigrating terms at the lakewood community since they’ve adopted many western styles.
So where do you draw the line? Is wearing a westernized suit and tie like a chareidi might not as bad as wearing jeans and sneakers like a YU guy might? Does either one violate halacha? I would argue that if jeans and sneakers is chukos hagoim, then so is the black suit that chareidi wears.
So what is the big substantial difference, in my opinion, between the MO and chareidi? Its not whether to engage the non society or not. Its whether to engage JEWISH society, the part of it that isn’t too much like us anymore, the Jews that arent too frum, who don;t really learn all that much, who live in small towns across the country and who struggle to maintain some connection. I think that Chareidi society will not encourage their sons to become rabannim in smaller, lesser frum communities, because they will then be at ‘risk’. Better to stay in Lakewood and learn in yeshiva.
In contrast, YU will encourage their many many semicha recipients to fan out across the country to lead congregations, some that are borderline conservative- YU believes that its worth the risk to the young man, if he can inspire the congregation.
But you need to be able to communicate with them- the tools to communicate with these people are modern education, politics, sports, etc. Rabbis who speak the language of the people will be better positioned to reach the people and inspire them.
I;ve been to many small congregations like these – the rabbi is invariably a YU graduate. They are trained well.