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Case file

Frum

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “yiddish word meaning committed to be observant of the 613 mitzvot”. Today it says “word that describes jewish religious devotion”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2015 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. 1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2015

Three man with customary head covering praying at the kotel , a frum Jew wearing an additional shtreimel in the middle Frum ( ; [frum | frim], related to German fromm ), meaning devout or pious , is a Yiddish describing word . To be frum means to be committed to the observance of Jewish religious law that often exceeds the bare requirements of Halakha, the collective body of Jewish religious laws .1 This not only includes the careful study of Torah , daily prayers, observing Shabbat and kashrut , and performing deeds of loving-kindness but also many more customs and khumrot . Khumrot are prohibitions or obligations in Jewish life that exceed the requirements of Halakha, some khumrot became customs in some communities over time, e.g. daily ritual immersion in a mikveh in Hasidic or kapparot in Haredi Judaism . Someone who is frum or devout is known as a frum Jew , a frummer (Yiddish "pious one", related to a German noun "ein Frommer") or frummie ( Yinglish diminutive "pious one").2 These appellations are generally, but not only, applied to Hasidic and Orthodox Judaism , and used by some members of these groups as a self-reference .3 Frum Breslov boys of Mea Shearim, Jerusalem, 2011 Frum kapparot ritual To follow a frum path in life implies the constant maintenance of an awareness of God by following spiritual practice as a makhmir , meaning "taking the stricter position on an issue". In this way, the Ashkenazi frum -culture is variously seen as a precaution against transgressing the Halakha or as a way of keeping those who have taken on the stringency separate from those who have not. In Ashkenazi Orthodox communities, the Yinglish initialism "FFB," meaning "Frum From Birth," is often used to refer to a person who was born into a religiously observant family and has maintained this lifestyle. In the Ashkenazi community the adjective frei (Yiddish and German "free") is used as an appellation by Jews with a secular background or by those that adhere to non-Orthodox denominations. A person who calls himself "frei" means one who is less religious and free from the observance of Halakha that exceeds the baseline requirement, or one who is not religiously observant and feels "frei" to do whatever one feels like doing.4

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 667058302.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “yiddish word meaning committed to be observant of the 613 mitzvot”. Today it says “word that describes jewish religious devotion”. Read the current article and compare.
201020152020Oct '232025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

yiddish word meaning committed to be observant of the 613 mitzvot

Now

word that describes jewish religious devotion

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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