ABSTRACT
The tactical significance of gossip goes beyond being defensive, for it becomes at times a primarily offensive act of aggression which only secondarily provides for security of one's self-image. The news may be part of a larger corpus of knowledge, or it may be a single piece of gossip, with no apparent connection to anything else. Public knowledge is also distinguished from news by being strictly limited in accessibility to recognized members of the public. The details of public knowledge are often, although not always, embedded in a complex narrative which serves to frame and hence point out their social meaning; as a result, a social construction of reality is more patently a part of the social discussion of events. Modern Orthodox Jewry is a group of which all members of Kehillat Kodesh consider themselves a part, and accordingly one may find a great deal of gossip indicating that relationship.
