Moshe Benovitz: Why Religious Change Doesn't Always Last [Teshuva 6/6]
18Forty Podcast
18Forty
4.7 • 704 Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2025
⏱️ 89 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, recorded live at Stern College, we speak with Rabbi Moshe Benovitz, director of NCSY Kollel, about what makes religious change real and sustainable.
In this episode we discuss:
—What is the difference between behavior modification and personality development?
—How does one translate yeshiva skills to a life of kedusha?
—What is the value of being less emotionally reactive to criticism?
Tune in to hear a conversation about how we might do teshuva that lasts throughout the year and beyond.
Interview begins at 16:00.
Rabbi Moshe Benovitz has been the director of NCSY Kollel for over two decades. David Bashevkin considers him the “Lorne Michaels” of Jewish education.
References:
Resisei Layla 50
Mishnah Kelim 17
Saturday Night Live
Mishneh Torah, Repentance
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You know what made Rabbi Sachs distinctive? |
| 0:03.0 | He created Torah commentary for this generation, people who want to engage thoughtfully with the world while staying rooted in tradition. |
| 0:11.0 | He didn't ask you to choose between serious Torah study and intellectual engagement with contemporary ideas. |
| 0:17.0 | Instead, he showed how Torah wisdom can engage with philosophy, science, ethics, the big questions |
| 0:23.2 | thoughtful people care about. Now his approach is available in complete Chumish format. It's called |
| 0:29.7 | the Rabbi Sachs Chimish, and his commentary is integrated right with the Torah text alongside |
| 0:35.5 | Rashi and Unkelis. If you're someone who wants Torah study that engages seriously with the intellectual currents of our time, this is the Torah commentary for our generation. Now available at koranpub.com. That's k-O-R-E-N-P-U-B-com or at your local bookstore. |
| 0:55.4 | And I'll just add, just on a personal note, I have seen the Rabbi Sacks-Klemish. |
| 0:59.7 | It is really incredible, and I think Rabbi Sacks as a translator, in the greatest sense of the word, when I say translator, I don't mean somebody who took a word from one language and rendered into another |
| 1:12.3 | language. What I mean is somebody who is able to translate ideas and values in a way that |
| 1:18.1 | preserves the timelessness and eternity of those ideas, yet is able to translate them in a way |
| 1:24.5 | that resonates for our generation. I have seen the Rabbi Sachs-Homish. |
| 1:29.2 | I have learned it. I have studied from it. And I could not recommend it more to our listeners. |
| 1:34.3 | This should be in every Jewish home. It's now available at corinpub.com or at your local bookstore. |
| 1:41.2 | By the Rabbi Sachs-Humish now. |
| 1:48.5 | Hi, friends. It's Dev david here in a longer letter a listener recently wrote to me about an experience he had during one of our episodes this is a real |
| 1:53.8 | direct quote i found myself driving with tears rolling down my face completely overtaken by what i was |
| 2:00.4 | hearing and i realized I had to thank |
| 2:03.1 | you. Not just for that episode, but for what 1840 has become for me. Not every reaction is quite like |
| 2:10.0 | that, but your support for 1840 ensures every Jew has a place to cry, to question, to discover parts |
| 2:17.2 | of Yiddishkite. they never knew how to access. |
| 2:19.9 | Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at 1840.org slash donate. |
... |
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