Episode 55 - Balance Beyond Extremes: Overcoming Life's Obstacles

Tired of feeling stuck in the same patterns? Ready for breakthrough change? This episode of The Trust Factor reveals how an ancient wisdom principle can create modern miracles in your life.

We dive deep into "measure for measure" (midah k'neged midah), a 3,800-year-old concept that explains how the energy we put into the world returns to us. When you support someone financially, your own finances flourish. When you care for others' children, your family thrives. Conversely, when you harm others, similar hardships find their way back to you. This isn't just karma—it's a divine system designed specifically for our growth.

The truly transformative aspect? God Himself operates within these boundaries. Just as the Red Sea parted only after a human being took the first courageous step against his nature, your breakthroughs happen when you challenge your own limitations. Whether you're struggling with relationships, finances, health, or spiritual connection, the key lies in changing yourself first. As King Solomon wisely observed, we have about 70 years (80 for the exceptionally strong) to maximize our potential—so why waste another day?

Drawing from Maimonides' teachings on character development, we explore how to combat extreme imbalances in our traits. Sometimes the middle path isn't enough; when facing deeply entrenched patterns, we must fight fire with fire. This approach becomes especially relevant in our increasingly polarized world, where extreme positions have become normalized.

Ready to transform your life? Listen now, and discover how to leverage this ancient principle to create modern miracles. Remember: what you put into the world comes back multiplied. What will you contribute today?

Transcript

Welcome to The Trust Factor

Speaker 1 0:00

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Trust Factor. Happy Sunday. This is the only podcast that is going to guarantee success in your life, as long as you implement some of these divine age-old wisdom nuggets. That's what we're sharing, my friends. On Friday we shared a very, very big nugget, and that nugget was about measure for measure. In Hebrew it's called midah, k'neged midah. That is a spectacular principle that exists strictly for our benefit, and if we're wise about it, if we do our homework and we know how to utilize it, then we can only benefit from it. Let me give you the snapshot of it again, and then we will move on, within the gate of trust, to the next section of the book.

Speaker 1 0:48

Measure for measure is a principle that God put into this world. You know it as what goes around comes around. You've heard that before. The secular world tells you what goes around comes around. Remember the way you treat people. They will treat you. The things that you do to other people will eventually come back to you. That is the principle.

Speaker 1 1:08

But in Torah, 3,800 years ago, it was called, and is still called today, measure for measure, meaning the very same thing If I take care of somebody's finances, my finances will be taken care of. If I take care of somebody's children and educate them, my children will be taken care of. If I take care of somebody's children and educate them, my children will be taken care of. If I do bad to somebody, if I hurt somebody, if I take money from them by stealing, my money will be stolen from me. If I make somebody feel worthless, if I put people down, then I will eventually be put down. It comes right back to you, my friends. There is no way around it. There is absolutely no way around it. We live in a world of justice and at the end of the day, it's all going to come back, good and bad. That is the principle. Now, how do we use that for our benefit? How do we take that nugget of information and deploy it in our lives in order to advance, in order to grow, in order to benefit? And the answer is we recognize that God himself limits himself by this principle of measure for measure and therefore, just like in the past in history, in the Torah, in the story around the splitting of the sea, it talks about how it took a man, a human being, who is not programmed, it's not in his nature to be able to breathe and function underwater, took the first step into the Red Sea or the Sea of Wreaths, and the sea split. As a result of his going against his nature. God changed the nature of the water to be able to do what it needed to do to stand and split on its own. That was the catalyst us going against our nature.

Speaker 1 2:52

So that means if you're stuck in a place in life and I don't care where it is, it really doesn't matter. No matter where you're stuck. Let's say you haven't been married, you're getting on in age and you haven't been able to hold down a proper relationship. Or you haven't been married, you're getting on in age and you haven't been able to hold down a proper relationship. Or you haven't been able to maintain a consistent income, or you haven't been able to create, to connect to your creator. You've been trying for decades and for some reason you just can't get over a certain hurdle, whatever it may be. Or you may be stuck in and out of hospital. God forbid dealing with health problems for you, for yourself or for a family member. There is no lack of difficulties in this world that we all have. We all have. What ends up happening, though sometimes, many times, is, instead of trying to overcome it, we get burnt out and we just resign to it and we accept that that's our fate and that's going to be the rest of our lives. And I'll tell you something, my friends that's the worst thing that you could possibly do. And I'll tell you something, my friends, that's the worst thing that you could possibly do.

Speaker 1 3:46

King Solomon, in all of his wisdom, said our lives, the days, the years of our lives are 70. Meaning, unless you're over the age of 70, you should be giving it 110% every day to continue to grow and to continue to improve yourself and your surroundings. Then he continues to say yourself and your surroundings. Then he continues to say if you're strong and if you're fortunate that even at 70 you've got energy and you're working and you've got clarity and you're busy and you're, you know, you're not bedridden or or whatever the many different myriad of things can be, when you're 70 and you're worn out, if you've got strength and if you've got courage and if you've got energy and you're moving forward and you're doing amazing things, then he gives you till 80. He says now you've got a little bit extra strength. Okay, in your case it's 80, but for everybody else who doesn't have that extra strength, it's 70. So unless you're at 70 or 80 plus, it's still incumbent upon you to give 110%. So that means you're stuck doing A or B. You don't feel that you can progress.

Speaker 1 4:47

You take this tool out of your bag, called measure for measure, and you say I am now going to change my nature. Remember, the longer you go in this life without having changed your nature, the more difficult it becomes. That's just the way it is. The more used to a certain way of life you become, the more difficult it is to change it, and marriage is a classic example of that. The longer you stay single, the harder it is for you to make room in your life to incorporate somebody else. So strike while you're inspired. If you're listening to this podcast and it's inspiring you, if you're listening to somebody else and you get inspired, strike, take a step, move forward, but change your nature.

Speaker 1 5:32

If you really want God to change nature for you, if you want God to create a miracle for you in order to enable you to grow, he's even willing to change nature. He's even willing to reprogram the way that the world works and create obvious outward miracles for the whole world to see in order for you, one individual, to be able to benefit. But the caveat is that you have to do it first. So figure out what your nature is. If your problem is that you're stingy, you can't give charity, you haven't done it. When you do do it, it's like a fraction of a fraction of the amount of money you're supposed to give. Or if your problem is that you've got a big ego and you can't carry your head around because it's so big and you're always at odds with people because you're always trying to be right, whatever it is, there are a myriad of issues that we deal with on a daily basis. You have to stop and you have to make a commitment to say I'm going to change 180 degrees. Let's talk about that. It's an interesting discussion, my friends, because the question is how do you change your nature? Okay, jesse, you're telling me I need to change my nature if I want God to step up and change nature for me. How do I do that? I've been around for 40, 50, 60 years. If I haven't been able to change my nature in that period of time, clearly I don't know how to do it right, and I'm going to give you the answer to that. Maybe we could spend a little bit of time on this, because it's important. This is all about growth. This is all about improving ourselves and our community and our surroundings, the way that we are supposed to change our nature.

Speaker 1 7:08

The Rambam we talked about him. Maimonides, a central figure in world history, certainly in Jewish history, but he's had a major impact on the entire planet. Maimonides says in his chapter on character traits. He says that we have to live a balanced life. We said that, we talked about that a couple of classes ago. We said that you have to be furthest from the left and furthest away from the right, which means it puts you smack center in the middle, perfectly balanced. If that's what you're striving for, then you are on the right track. That is the right way to lead your life.

Speaker 1 7:42

But we get into situations where we're stuck. We get into situations where we have an evil inclination that overpowers us. Every time I go to battle with him, he wins. When it comes to money, or when it comes to relationships, or when it comes to my ego, when it comes, whatever it is my anger, my patience or whatever it is he always trumps, he always wins. He comes out ahead and I'm always regretting it, or I always, and I've resigned to it.

Speaker 1 8:07

How do I change that?

Speaker 1 8:09

Well, rambam says, my mind tells us that if you're in that situation where you cannot overcome, you cannot grow, you are seemingly stuck. There's no such thing as balance. Balance goes out the window. Why? Why? Because you're coming from a position of severe imbalance. If you're so stingy that you can't give a dollar to charity, then your scales are tilted in the opposite extreme. If your ego is so big that you can never let anybody else be right, then you are operating in the extreme already. And that shouldn't surprise you, my friends, because we said, we're living in a time in modern history, and certainly maybe in even human history, where we are fraught with all of these difficulties. Because we live in an extreme environment where we've got new terms called alt-left and alt-right, uber-left and uber-right. These terms never existed before. They were created for a purpose. We're not going there, but the point is we're living in an extreme environment.

Speaker 1 9:16

Extreme character traits are simply unhealthy. I don't care what it is, I don't care how good the character trait is in small quantities. As soon as you take it to an extreme level, it becomes toxic. So the way to combat that, the way to challenge that extreme position that you're coming with, is to fight it with fire. Fight fire with fire. Fight extremes with extremes. What do I mean? We're going to talk about that, my friends, tomorrow. Have a spectacular week, have a meaningful week and have a week where you put into this world amazing things, knowing full well, measure for measure, they're going to come back to you.