From Online Torah Classes with Rabbi Mendy Goldberg by R Mendy Goldberg.
- Published: Mon, 31 Aug 2026 22:08:38 GMT
- Duration: 00:52:34
- Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/10f48890/podcast/play/125009636/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-7-31%2F430920377-44100-2-ee2be9ef84aab.mp3
- Page: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mendy-goldberg/episodes/The-Half-Hour-Challenge-e3o5g94
- TorahApp: https://torahapp.org/share/p/3P_r_mendy_goldberg_online_torah/e/f1323d33-1f98-480b-a5d0-e1a06c972490
The Half Hour Challenge
We must climb another rung in spiritual work by absorbing a revolutionary idea from the "Alter Rebbe" (the first Chabad rebbe) about how to relate to the evil inclination (yetzer hara).
Quoting King Solomon, The evil inclination as an "old and foolish king", experienced, confident, and able to stir up overwhelming emotions. But ultimately it's "foolish": it preaches nonsense and pointless "solutions" leading nowhere good. As long as we treat it as a legitimate opponent, we'll collapse before its emotional force, since positive intentions alone can't match its intensity. Only by stripping away its disguise, exposing the underlying panic, like an unthinking bully causing a reckless accident , can we shift from fear to compassion, which causes it to collapse.
A practical exercise: the "Half-Hour Challenge." When the urge demands instant reaction, deliberately delay response for thirty minutes. In that pause, the emotional "short circuit" fades, reason returns, and the urge is revealed as irrational and unworthy of fear, better met with pity than dread.
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