From RYAdlerstein's
love letter to Dallas I associate large "cathedral" type shul buildings with centrist Orthodoxy, not groups further to the right.
-- Funny. I associate the cathedrals with Hassidut, and can point to buildings that fit that definition in Kaiser, in Square, in Tash, in Kiryas Joel, and in various Boro Park and Jerusalem neighborhoods. Furthermore, in the MB 150:2 the mechaber says the synagogue must be the tallest building in the city. Shuls of this sort can be seen in the Diaspora Museum's famous Hall of Synagogues, dating to the time before the modern distinctions between RW and centrist Orthodoxy existed.
Ohr HaTorah, however, is built in the tradition of the large, central structure meant to be a place for davening and learning – and much more. Still, the dominant suit color is black; the modal – but by far not exclusive - head covering is Borsalino. Seating is at tables that are meant to hold seforim, not rows of chairs or pews.
-- This peculiar prejudice against pews has never made much sense to me. I seem to recall learning that it is preferable to have one room set aside for tefillah, a room that isn't used for any other purpose including Torah study, but I can't seen to put my finger on the source. Perhaps I made it up. In any event, I don't see the advantage of praying where you learn, and vice versa, though I know that's the fasion today; in earlier eras it wasn't done this way. Ruins of some ancient synagogues display ampitheater-like seating, for example.
[Fun fact to know and tell: At least two Byzantine-era synagogues found in the Galilee region had floor mosaics whose centerpieces contained a Roman zodiac, in the middle of which was an image of Helios (the sun-god) holding the sun under his arm]
Yet, the easy camaraderie between klei kodesh and baalei batim was palpable. Zmanin are uncompromised halachic ones, and the baalei batim don't seem to mind;
-- A note: Where I live the ballei batim who like to daven late, and object to efforts to meet the "uncompromised halachic zamnim" are all black hatters, who would call themselves yeshivish or hasidic-lite. (Those who want to keep the zamin, I should add, would also call themselves yeshivish. RYA seems to be pretending that all yeshivish people wish to daven on time, but are prevented from doing so by modernishkes. He and I both know that more often it is yeshivish people who prevent other yeshivish people from meeting the zamnim. In short, this isn't a dispute between Jewish sects, but between lazy people, and non-lazy people.)
The parts of the davening are nusach Young Israel and the klei kodesh don't seem to mind.
-- Another note: I don't know specifically what RYA is referring to here, but in my experience much of what the RWers cavalierly dismisss as nusach Young Israel is in fact very old, in some cases older than the nusach of the shteible. Examples include the singing of yigdal after Friday night services, and the tune used for Vayehi Bnsoa Haaron.
They have the mandatory old-time congregational singing interludes on Shabbos that yeshivos have long shunned.
--How perplexing. If they are mandatory, and old time, why have they been shunned by the yeshivos? What is there heter for dropping a long-established element of the liturgy? And shouldn't this call into doubt their claims of authenticity?
Children sing Yigdal and Ein Kelokeinu. Women have full visibility, because the one-way glass was engineered the right way, and does exactly what it was designed to do. The Kolel yungerleit do not have their own minyan, but daven in the shul by choice.
-- um Hooray?
