An article by Rabbi Avrohom Birnbaum for the Yated was brought to my attention last week in which the author decries the dangers of podcasts. He cited the strategy of President-elect Donald Trump turning to podcasts such as Joe Rogan’s as a means of circumventing the mainstream media and talking directly to the American people. While I understand well the point he was trying to make, his logic doesn’t compute very well. Mainstream media has been exposed as a fake and a fraud, creating its own devious, self-serving narratives. They sought to hamper President-elect Trump’s chances at reelection by throwing frivolous allegation after allegation at him while his challengers on the other side of the aisle continued to break the law with impunity. From that vantage point it was podcasters like Joe Rogan, Theo Vonn, Andrew Schultz, and Full Send who are to thank for getting President Trump elected and providing a glimmer of hope for the country to make a comeback from four years of imposters running the country with a cardboard cutout president sitting in the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in our nation’s capital.
The main issue that I had with the article is the demeaning manner in which Rabbi Birnbaum talks about fellow Yidden who he presupposes have some sort of hidden, insidious agenda to mislead unsuspecting listeners down a dangerous and even sinful path. He takes it for granted that he was given a platform to espouse his views while anyone else whose views don’t align with his or those that he sees as representing the views of “daas Torah” wherever that came from, are not worthy of being articulated or much less listened to. One would think that we learned a thing or two after spending decades trying to ban the internet and the use of modern technology but here we are again suggesting a ban on frum podcasts due to it allowing people to discuss issues and topics without them first being cleared by a rabbinic board. I am a firm believer in hashgachah pratis. As such, I have thought deeply into reasons for the phenomenon that blogs, podcasts, and the social media influencer culture have risen to worldwide popularity at this late stage in history. If you would ask Rabbi Birnbaum he would surely have you believe that it’s an act of satan and a result of the descent and degeneration of society as we march further from the giving of the Torah on Har Sinai. However, I firmly believe that there is a unique Divine providence at play in the fact that individuals, regardless of what their expertise is or whether they possess an expertise in anything, are given a platform to espouse their ideas. The Navi Yirmiyahu, describing the messianic era writes that it will be a time wherein: “Man will no longer need to learn from a colleague or superior since everyone will know G-d intuitively.” In the early 90s the Lubavitcher Rebbe in the context of a sichah that he delivered as part of a greater campaign to herald the coming of Moshiach said, “In our nearness to the advent of the messianic era we have reached a time period where it is appropriate for every Jew to be endowed with the honorific Admor which is an acronym for Adoneinu, Moreinu, V’Rabbeinu meaning our master, mentor, and teacher.
In fact, it was the Lubavitcher Rebbe who exhorted Jews the world over to teach their fellow whatever it is that they knew that someone else may be in search of. He famously implored, “If you know aleph, teach aleph.” The Baal Shem Tov once said that he envisioned a time prior to the coming of Moshiach where there will be thousands of Rebbes and it’s clear to me as day that we are near the maturation of that process.
When Rabbi Gershon Ber Jacobson was planning the publication of his newspaper, The Algemeiner Journal, he had asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe if he should install a rabbinic board to oversee and certify the content that would be sent into the newspaper for publication to which the Rebbe said your job at the newspaper is to report the news. Installing a rabbinic board would create an obstacle to publishing even the first issue of the newspaper. After all, he said, who reads newspapers? Baal Habatim, not yeshiva students who are meant to be spending their time immersed in Torah in the beis medrash.
To a certain extent calls to proscribe podcast platforms and to regulate who is allowed to express their opinions publicly is seeking to keep the Jewish people in exile. The Jewish people are holy. We are imbued with an actual part of G-d and even if not every Jew is meant to listen to every podcast, certainly there are Jews out there who can learn something from every podcaster out there.
I would expect someone like Rabbi Birnbaum who maintains a weekly column to appreciate the power of words. Chazal state, “Maves v’chaim b’yad lashon,” one can cause death or life by the words they choose to utter. Furthermore, the seforim teach that there essentially is no heavenly tribunal. The judgment in heaven is carried out based upon the rulings that are rendered down here. In fact, we render our own judgment above based on the rulings that we issue upon others in this world. If we attempted to find merit in Jews in this world, we could tip the world to the side of redemption instead of obstructing the path forward and perpetuating the exile for even one second longer.
Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.