How and in what ways is chutzpah part of the Jewish way of life?

wheres @pdworkin when you need him?

I’m right here. I think the OP has got a lot of balls to ask this question. (That is to say, what makes chutzpah “Jewish”?) Isn’t it rather universal? That’s why the English language borrowed the word – it’s useful. If it only applied to 2% of the population you still wouldn’t know what it meant.

@pdworkin What are you, meshuggah?

i’m here, i’m a girl and i don’t have balls. Is Fluther not a community of people that ask what they feel like asking, what they are curious about, no matter what the topic – from cars to relationships to enemas, and should be able to ask without being persecuted?

I am whackadoodle, my darling.

Yup. Balls! And since women don’t have them (although that doesn’t stop anyone from using that term when appropriate), you can tell them they have chutzpah. But only if you’re Jewish. [I’m kidding, I’m kidding; stop throwing that rotten vegetable material.]

Would I poisecute anybody? Heaven forfend! That was just my Jewish sense of humor, @jca

@jca You have to take pdworkin with a grain of salt – he’s a grumpy old man. Not to put words in his mouth (I wouldn’t dare): I think the point is that chutzpah is not just a Jewish quality but a Yiddish term for balls or bravery. It can be used in both a praising and a perjorative sense (“Cutting in line took real chutzpah.” or “Mike Bloomberg had real chutzpah when he stood up to the bankers.”)

It took chutzpah for you to defend yourself for asking the question and you were absolutely right to do so.

thanks @janbb : now more chutzpah for me to remind you that you can GA me if you liked my answer.

i was thinking did pdworkin think nobody could ask a question like that? on what basis would he think that question is not acceptable, i don’t know.

A perfectly acceptable question, I just do not feel that there is anything inherently “Jewish” about chutzpah, and that was my answer.

Chutzpah, “balls” or “audacity” used to have a negative connotation.

“What Chutzpah!” you would say about a waiter who had gripped your shoulder like an old friend, even though you had never met.

But in the Yiddish language (as opposed to hebrew) and especially in America, the word has evolved to be more ambivalent and sometimes even positive.

“What Chutzpah!” you might say, about your son who just successfully, and on a whim, asked out the richest, prettiest girl in school.

no @pdworkin, i believe your answer said the OP has a lot of balls to ask the question, not that it was “a perfectly acceptable question.”

That was the joke part, my dear.

oh sorry. haha. :)

@jca I also thought chutzpah was a Jewish term, hence my quip about where is @pdworkin , I can always count on him to correct my feeble knowledge of anything Jewish

yeah i did too. he was just a little rude in his response, i thought.

When you meet your child’s new SO, you say, “So nice to finally meet you. How much do you earn per annum?”

When you see an older woman who looks suspiciously too good, you say, “You look fabulous. Who did your nose?”

@gailcalled : oy vey.

@jca yeah i did too. he was just a little rude in his response, i thought.

You don’t get that chutzpa means much the same as ” a lot of balls”?

He was being witty, not rude – a play on words.

Thanks, @DarkScribe, I guess my explanation, though well-intended, was inadequate. Or perhaps the OP has a stake in feeling persecuted, in which case who am I to refuse to oblige?

someone who shall remain nameless pm’d me and told me he was being rude. so i don’t have a stake in feeling persecuted, thank you.

While not restricted to those who are Jewish, chutzpah is a very useful characteristic for those who have emigrated to a new country and need to start all over from nothing. Thus Jews in America may talk about chutzpah, while Hispanics may talk about machismo, and the Irish may say someone has brass. Certainly you see a lot of it in cities where immigrants have most commonly made landfall, such as New York.

If you prefer it, the term “chutzpah” can also be defined as “boldness,” thus removing any debate about genitalia. Other synonyms include arrogance, audacity, backbone, balls, gall, nerve, and spine.

Darwin got it. There is no gender attached to the noun “chutzbah.” I have always read it as nervy, nosy, aggressive, and non-Waspy.

So, how much did that hair-cut set you back?

@jca Whoever told you that was entirely mistaken. This may be a cue to you to discount that person’s advice in the future. He or she may have an axe to grind, whereas I was just having fun, and trying to answer your question.

well regardless i did think your reply was rude. unless i just don’t know you.

someone who shall remain nameless pm’d me and told me he was being rude. so i don’t have a stake in feeling persecuted, thank you.

Ah, ninety-nine – a variation of the anonymous email ploy!

@pdworkin they just don’t get your Jewish sense of humor. :). As said above Chutzpah is a Yiddish word basically used synonomously with balls/guts/nerve. It is not that Chutzpah applies to Jewish people it is that it comes from a language used by Jews, but is now commonly used in America, even by gentiles, especially in areas heavily populated by Jews like NYC, Miami, etc. It even comes up in Merriam-Webster on-line English dctionary http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chutzpah Other words you know that came from the Yiddish/German are shlep, glitch, oy or oy vey, schmata, shmooze, tushy, yutz, nosh, bubkis, and there are so many more. All can be used with Jews or Goys with my permission. Just Kidding.

I have nothing to add to this conversation. How sad.

I am of the camp that say that @pdworkin was not being rude at all. However, since this is the Internet most of us could not hear his inflection, which would have made it clear that he was gently kidding the OP while defining the term “chutzpah.”

But then my grandfather spoke Yiddish and I grew up thinking Leo Rosten was as close to being a saint as any Jew could possibly be.

Rosten is also the one who said “We see things as we are, not as they are,” which is a useful thought for anyone who communicates on the Internet.

@Darwin I like that quote.

Me, too. But then I like much of what Rosten says. Truth comes often in the form of humor to make it more palatable.