The Telltale Signs Of A YouTube Conspiracy Rabbi

One of the major benefits of the Internet and social media -notwithstanding their inherent spiritual dangers- has been the remarkable growth of Torah learning that these technologies have helped spread throughout the world. Websites like TorahAnyTime.com have revolutionized Torah learning and have fundamentally altered its landscape.

A very unfortunate consequence of this phenomenon has been the popularity and appeal of conspiracy theory rabbis on YouTube and other unregulated online platforms. This is part of a larger trend of conspiracy theories and other forms of misinformation that is ubiquitous on the Internet. Sociologist and media theorist Neil Postman famously predicted decades ago that technology would have damaging effects on society. Part of the damage, Postman argued, is misinformation overload.

Nothing can be more damaging when the content online is misinformation disguised as Torah. When anyone can create a YouTube channel, start lecturing on Torah topics, and amass thousands of subscribers, it’s important to know how to distinguish promoters of conspiracy theories from the promoters of Torah.

So here are telltale signs of a YouTube conspiracy rabbi:

The Cherry-Picking of Torah Sources

This is one of the hallmarks and red flags of a conspiracy rabbi: He will cherry-pick Torah sources that appear to support his theories. Indeed, what better way to support his conspiracies than to provide Torah sources? But the problem with Torah sources is that one can theoretically use Torah sources to prove anything. You want to prove an angry, vengeful G-d? There are sources for that. You want to prove a kind, benevolent G-d? There are sources for that as well.

Verses and passages alone mean very little if we don’t have the mesorah, or tradition, of how to understand them with proper context. Mesorah connotes a cherished and specific tradition that has been transmitted from one generation to the next. To be sure, there are different streams of tradition within normative Judaism. There are the Litvishe, Hasidic, Sephardic, and Kabbalistic traditions, among others. We defer to the Mesorah passed down from our rabbis, who in turn got it from their rabbis, and so on. Just because one finds a source in a rishon, or an early rabbinic scholar, that appears to support a particular view does not mean that this rishon’s source is necessarily the accepted approach. It makes no difference if the source is halachic or hashkafic in nature. Torah sources do play a big role in our religion, but essentially, our religion is more mesorah-based than text-based.

The conspiracy rabbi adheres to no mesorah. One will rarely, if ever, hear a conspiracy rabbi speak about his rabbi or his yeshiva. In contrast, mesorah Rabbis frequently pay homage to their rabbis and yeshivas, to the critical mesorah that they received from them.

Excessive Attention and Time Given to Current Events

While there are certainly rabbis and lecturers that will dabble in current events, the conspiracy rabbi tends to devote a disproportionate part of the Torah class to his interpretation of current events. He tries to connect his class with the news of the day, sometimes going on political and spiritual tirades on what he perceives are the opponents, or more aptly, the enemies of the Jewish people. When major news developments unfold on the national or international stage, he will harp on it and use it as a springboard for his various conspiracies. No time was this better demonstrated during the Covid-19 epidemic when conspiracy theories flourished on the Internet. Unfortunately, there were popular Orthodox Jewish speakers who espoused wild and dangerous conspiracies about the pandemic, which soon devolved into even wilder conspiracies like the New World Order and the Illuminati. Recently, the Canadian wildfires that produced the orange haze which engulfed NYC also sparked conspiracy theories that have spread online. Predictably, some speakers have harped on this event to promote their conspiracies and fear-mongering. With social media, the misinformation is spread at a faster pace and to a wider audience than ever before. Like wildfires, once conspiracies start spreading on social media, they are hard to control and take a life of their own.

Mysticism is Used to Lend Credibility to Conspiracies

The conspiracy rabbi tends to use mysticism to support and lend validity to his conspiracy theories. Resorting to mysticism makes perfect sense since conspiracy theories are often used to explain apparently irrational events happening in the world, and mysticism is perceived as a system of explanations that go beyond the rational. Therefore, the use of mysticism is an ingenious tactic because if listeners catch themselves second guessing the speaker’s logic or reasoning, they must be in the wrong, because, afterall, mysticism is not supposed to make sense on a superficial level.

Strong Emphasis is Placed on the End of Days

What’s a good conspiracy without some kind of reference to the End of Days? End of the world narratives are a common theme among conspiracy mongers. The End of Days, or Gog and Magog, certainly has sources in the Torah and Chazal, but the conspiracy rabbi uses and emphasizes these sources to promote his baseless conspiratorial agenda.

Obsession with Evil

There’s nothing that excites conspiracy rabbis more than their notions of evil. They are absolutely obsessed with evil, or with what they perceive as being evil. Conspiracies cannot exist without the existence of someone evil lurking in the shadows. Hence, there’s always this cabal of evildoers who are wreaking havoc and chaos in the world. These evildoers are the source of all the evil in the world. Some of the popular contenders for evildoers have been people like Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and Anthony Fauci. Even Jewish ones like George Soros and the Rothschilds have made it to the evil list. Conspiracy rabbis are best suited to identify the forces of evil, as they are supposedly teachers of Torah, the blueprint for a good and moral life.

Listeners Are Directed to Check His Claim on Google

After sharing his conspiracy with his listeners, the conspiracy rabbi will typically say: “you can Google this, I’m not making this up.” Anticipating that his listeners will doubt or deny the veracity of his claims, he preempts and relieves their concerns by directing them to check it out for themselves on the Internet. He only gains by using this tactic because many of his listeners won’t actually Google it- they will take his word for it- and even if they do, there’s always going to be some website that will appear to lend legitimacy to his claim. Afterall, there’s a lot of misinformation and conspiracy theories that appear on professional-looking websites.

Technological advances are taking place at a very rapid rate. The Internet and social media are technologies that are here to stay. As Neil Postman observed decades ago, technology can have very harmful effects on individuals and society as a whole. Nonetheless, Postman argued, it would be silly for one to be against technology. Just like one cannot be against food, one also cannot be against technology. But we can be smarter eaters and smarter users of technology. We can try to learn to detect accurate information online from misleading and faulty ones. We can learn to detect the redflags a YouTube conspiracy rabbi from a rabbi who is giving over the mesorah of our cherished beliefs and values. Unfortunately, Youtube conspiracy rabbis aren’t going anywhere, but once we learn to identify and steer away from them, we have already eliminated the danger posed by them. As Postman wrote in regards to the perils of technology: “No medium is excessively dangerous if its users understand what its dangers are.”

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Tzvi Haimov has a degree in political science from Queens College. Haimov currently resides in Fresh Meadows, Queens, and can be reached for comment at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..