From an article:
In January 1991, on the eve of the Gulf War, I was forced home stateside from my Jerusalem yeshivah. As a yeshivah "refugee," I, with many others, wound up at Brooklyn's Yeshiva Torah Vodaas. For the duration of that fraught period, YTV kindly hosted and fed any displaced rabbinic student in need, providing both spiritual and material sustenance.
During lunch breaks, several rabbinic candidates would head to the dorm and listen to Rush Limbaugh as we ate. I had never heard of him before.
"You'll become addicted," a fellow refugee warned me with certainty. He was right (on the political spectrum), but also correct.
At a time when the Middle East's only democracy was under attack, Mr. Limbaugh was one of the few media voices passionately defending the Jewish state we'd just been forced to flee.
In a corner dorm room out of earshot of the busy lunchroom, a "ghetto blaster" — remember those? — was placed on a chipped, repurposed breakfast table. We budding bearded boys would sit on cold metal chairs and listen as Rush dissected, analyzed, and expounded — and entertained.
Life in serious yeshivos is all about ideas — philosophical, legal, theoretical, and real-world. But unlike university libraries, where even study groups are quiet, a yeshivah's beis medrash is characteristically abuzz with passionate debate. And in the yeshivah milieu, it's hard, if not impossible, to compartmentalize scholastic approaches to mastering subject material.
During commercials, we would-be scholars applied our well-honed skills to "Rabbi Limbaugh's" discourses. In our search for truth, we tried to find flaws in his logic and arguments. We rarely succeeded.
Day in and day out, before heading back to our Talmud tomes, we'd — only half in jest — pronounce Rush's beliefs "kosher" and our "idling" productive.
We "refugees" never evangelized our lucky find. We didn't have to. Over the years, friends would later report similar goings-on at other "brand-name" yeshivos.
Even today, I'm told, many yeshivah dorms have, at lunch, an unofficially assigned room where those living in the World of Ideas can — should they be so inclined — sit a spell to "visit" the World of Reality, with Mr. Limbaugh's normally booming voice faintly heard but well-listened to.
Having caught the Limbaugh "bug" during the Gulf War, afterward I continued listening devotedly. Life in yeshivah was, particularly by New York standards, idyllic, elevated, and proper, and we focused on bettering ourselves, our communities, and the world at large.
But complicating the latter goal was that, in nearly all decent fervently Orthodox rabbinical seminaries, there is limited access to secular newspapers. Mr. Limbaugh's daily broadcasts kept us updated not just on the nitty-gritty of political mechanics, but also on how America was changing socially. And, he would thunder, not in a positive way.
Rush's worldview reflected a traditionalist perspective that resonated with fervently religious Jews. (After all, the "Judeo" part of the value system refers to unadulterated Judaism.)
Mr. Limbaugh was a "woke" initiator for people of faith decades before modern progressives made similar moves for their causes. His call to arms not only informed his fans and followers of what was happening to our supposedly G-d-centered society, it psychologically empowered tens of millions who had been led to believe, based on mainstream media conditioning, that it was we traditional thinkers who were the statistical outliers. Mr. Limbaugh restored our belief that we could — and must — regain our voice.
For me, mastery of the issues Mr. Limbaugh raised was preparation for the real world, particularly against those who claimed to speak in the name of Judaism yet advocated behavior at odds with our millennia-old teachings.
Unlike some of my fellow students, I wasn't embarrassed to admit to listening to Mr. Limbaugh. Just the opposite. I would actually delve into the principles he advanced with my religious mentors and spiritual guides, allowing Rush's spark to be refined through the blowtorch of hashkafic clarity.
My rebbeim and roshei yeshivah were nearly always in agreement with him. In fact, they empowered me with the intellectualism needed to combat the ever-increasing attacks on the Torah-centered value system. Those attacks cropped up at college (when I pursued a journalism degree), at work, and most importantly, in my outreach interactions. Ideas initiated by Mr. Limbaugh and later "rabbi refined" filled my articles and columns. Thanks to the clarity he inspired, I never needed to utter the words: "Can I get back to you on that?"
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This is an important issue. Should we be learning hashkafa from a believing Christian?
The Gemara says:
הַלּוֹמֵד דָּבָר אֶחָד מִן הַמָּגוֹשׁ חַיָּיב מִיתָה.
One who learns one matter from the magosh is liable to receive the death penalty.
Who is a Magosh?
Rashi - A Min who is connected to Avoda Zara. Mr. Limbaugh was a firm believer in the divinity of Yoshke. Rabbeinu Chananel - A Kofer.
We don't need to learn and then analyze and dissect the words of עובדי עבודה זרה or Kofrim [unless it is to disprove them - see the Gemara there].
On that note; People like Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, Jordan Peterson, Tucker Carlson and the like are much closer to the Torah hashkafa than what is written in the NY Times or broadcast on CNN. But we shouldn't delude ourselves for a moment into thinking that they represent Torah values. They are CLOSER than people on the left [usually] but still an admixture of a lot of other, foreign ideas.
If Rush Limbaugh did good in his life, Hashem will reward him. But we can never make עובדי עבודה זרה into our Rabbeim. For the proper hashkafa on current events we could [AND SHOULD!!] listen to people like Rav Moshe Schapiro, Rav Asher Weiss, Rav Meyer Twersky and others who all [although they all think differently] present a Torah and Jewish perspective.
On that note: I once saw a video of a prominent Orthodox rabbi explaining to a group of Catholics what a rebbi is and then saying that a certain priest is his rebbi. I could almost see this rabbi's ancestors [he comes from distinguished lineage] squirming in their graves....
[That being said - there are circumstances when one may be allowed to listen to people like Limbaugh. Discuss it with your Rav if you are so inclined.]
