Strangely enough that point was made by Rabbi Avrohom Birnbaum. Who is a hard core adherent of the defacto infallibility of Charedi Daas Torah and a columnist for the the very hard core ‘Lithuanian Yeshiva style Daas Torah’ newspaper, the Yated.
He therefore clearly believes that the internet should be avoided as much as possible. And yet he is knowledgeable enough to know exactly what is going on in that world in what seems like great detail. I suppose he might say he has to know as a matter of teaching the Torah world what to avoid. (That’s kind of like saying he has to look at porn in order to teach the Torah world how bad it is. But I digress.)
Be that as it may, in a recent Yated column Rabbi Birnbaum attacked what he called ‘Frum’ podcast. Describing many of them - not only as not so Frum but even dangerous. The pertinent parts of his article were excerpted at VIN. Some of which is as follows:
Over the past several years, an entire industry of frum podcasts has emerged... There is one thing that is very troubling and even dangerous about these frum podcasts, and that is that there is no standard. Anyone who wants can just make a podcast and espouse whatever they want. There are those who say, “Great! Let the free market decide who is good and who isn’t.”
On some level, perhaps that sounds fair, but it is also like saying, “Let anyone decide what food is kosher or not.” …
Sadly, podcasting in the frum world is like the Wild West. There are harmless podcasts, harmful podcasts, and insidious podcasts that, under the mask of frumkeit, bring all kinds of opinions that are not, to say the least, in the mainstream of frum opinion…
In truth, podcasts should be treated no differently than newspapers. When one picks up this newspaper, they know more or less what they are getting hashkafically, and in the event that we, on occasion, err, we get grief from the best, most discerning readership in Klal Yisroel. So too, there must be some kind of standard when it comes to podcasts.
What he in essence is saying is that if
the views expressed are not those of his Daas Torah, they harmful a even if a
Frum Jew is behind it and espouses views that are perfectly acceptable according
to Halalcha and quite mainstream even though they are outside of his narrow worldview. So that if, for example a Relgious Zionist Rav who is a Talmud Chacham had a podcast, he would
consider that dangerous.
I get that lines have be drawn. Even though I hate censorship of any kind, Halacha requires that we not expose ourselves to heresy unless it is to refute it by those who might challenge us with it. This requires knowledge about what it is you are refuting and knowledge about how to refute it. (This is a principle known as Da Mah SheTashiv). But Rabbi Birnbaum would have us believe that anything other than His very right wing Charedi Hashkfa ought to be banned as dangerous material. As far as i am concerned it is his view that is dangerous.
If for example there are podcast about the worldviews of the Rav, his brother R’ Aharon, or R’ Aharon Lichtenstein it would be tragic to consider that dangerous for the Torah world. He doesn’t quite spell it out that way. But I know the kind of thinking that goes on in that world.
By the same token it would be just as tragic if the Modern Orthodox world would consider dangerous podcasts that feature the worldviews of R’ Shach, R’ Elyashiv, or R’ Kanievsky.
Bottom line is that knowledge is power. And Tora knowledge is Torah power. If there are legitimame mainstream Orthodox worldviews we hve an obligation to know what they are and be able to choose the one which makes the most sense to us.
