Are Our Hotlines Pushing “Frum” Agendas?

In a column in Yated Ne’eman, columnist Avrohom Birnbaum addresses the increasingly popular frum public hotlines, some of which are the greatest blessings, but some of which, he posits, can be damaging.

“Organizations such as Kol Halashon and the like can reach hundreds of thousands of listeners,” he writes, “offering shiurim and inspiration on virtually every area of Torah and chizuk. This explosion of harbotzas haTorah for men, women and children, and perhaps especially to women who cannot get out as easily as men to attend shiurim or other learning opportunities, is a tremendous blessing.”

But then, he says, there are “agenda-based hotlines,” where “several people, or even one person with a minimal outlay of money, can make their own hotline to push any agenda that they want.”

Often, he avers, “people who are well intentioned but seriously misguided put out all kinds of messages that confuse others, leading to anxiety and doubt amongst those who are not strongly rooted in their beliefs. Very often, they lead to anxiety l’chumra, making people feel guilty that they are possibly doing the wrong thing or, perhaps, if they would just listen to the passionate person speaking on the hotline and take upon themselves the advocated issue, they would finally have their yeshuah, life would be rosy, and they would sail through life in Gan Eden hatachton without any problems.”

There are hotlines devoted to different areas of that pose these problems, he says. “They take some of the most hallowed and important parts of Yiddishkeit and either magnify the problem or omit important information in order to browbeat and intimidate the unwitting and usually not knowledgeable-enough listener to think that this is the greatest issue that they face. Unfortunately, nearly all of this mixed and confusing messaging hits home, because so many of us do not have a rov or moreh derech to guide us.”

Rabbi Birnbaum uses one example to bring out his point, highlighting a campaign to get well-meaning women in our community to throw away their shaitlach and only wear scarves, tichels, and the like as head coverings. He comments: “If you are Sefardic and your mesorah and poskim hold that a shaitel is not acceptable, of course you should follow that. You don’t need a hotline. If you are a member of some of the Chassidishe communities that hold that a shaitel is unacceptable, then you are certainly obligated to follow the minhag of your ancestors. You also don’t need a hotline. What if you are a member of the many communities that have accepted shaitel as head coverings for generations? …Yes, there may have been poskim who did not permit shaitlach in accordance with their mesorah, but what these hotlines are doing is being motzie laaz; they are casting aspersions on the greatest of our gedolim, whose own wives and daughters wore shaitel lechatchilah. …They are using guilt and obfuscation to convince well-meaning women that this sacrifice as a korban to Hashem will solve their problems.”

{Matzav.com}