The Trust Factor
A daily lesson that focuses on achieving unparalleled success in life using ancient wisdom in modern times.
We will be discussing critical concepts as they are laid out in the book Sha'ar Habitachon - The Gate of Trust. Written 1000 years ago, the author reminds us of the values and wisdom that have allowed humanity to thrive throughout history.
The concept of trusting in a higher power that exists purely for our benefit, puts us in the drivers seat with absolute confidence to achieve greatness.
Eliminate: Fear, Hatred, Anxiety, Depression, Jealousy, Greed...forever!
* Note that some terminology will be in the original Hebrew or Aramaic which I will always follow with the English translation.
The Trust Factor
Episode 74 - Spigots on an Empty Barrel: Why More Hustle Won't Fill Your Cup
Have you forgotten what it feels like to walk barefoot through grass or feel the sun warming your skin? Our modern obsession with productivity has severed our connection to the natural world that once nourished us completely.
The Trust Factor podcast challenges listeners to reclaim this vital relationship with nature. Drawing from ancient wisdom, we explore how our childhood connection to the outdoors provided us with energy, clarity, and passion that no supplement can replace. We've exchanged freshly grown food for processed alternatives and sunshine for artificial light—all in pursuit of material wealth that ultimately leaves us depleted.
Through a powerful Kabbalistic analogy, we examine how our livelihood resembles a wine barrel with divine provision flowing in from above. Many of us, dissatisfied with what we receive, frantically attach additional spigots through various business ventures and investments. Yet this misguided approach merely drains the same allocation faster while sacrificing our most precious resources: time, health, and relationships.
This episode delves into the deeper purpose behind why we must work for our livelihood rather than having all needs automatically fulfilled. Life itself is a divine test—will we pursue success within ethical boundaries, or will we compromise our values to accumulate more? As we observe society increasingly failing this test, we're reminded that true wealth includes balance, connections, and experiencing the natural world we were designed to inhabit.
With none of us knowing our "expiration date," how will you spend your precious days? Step outside, breathe deeply, and reconnect with what truly matters. Your success depends not on how many spigots you attach to your barrel, but on recognizing when you already have enough.
Good morning everybody and welcome to the Trust Factor. This is the podcast that guarantees your success when you implement the teachings. My friends, get outside, go for a walk, spend time in nature. We are so consumed with working and generating an income and keeping busy and maintaining all of the things that we need to maintain in this life that what ends up happening inevitably is that, as we grow from childhood to adulthood, we are pulled away from the things that are important in order to focus on the things that are not or not nearly as important. There is nothing nearly as important as your own good health, mental health and physical health.
Speaker 1:One of the best ways for a human being to get the necessary energy and drive and health is by being outside, in the sun, in the grass, in the fields, in the forests. Get out into nature. That's where we were as kids, and there's no coincidence that as children and I'm talking to my generation here because, unfortunately, the newer generations they're right out of the gate, they're stuck at home, but the older generation knows full well what I'm talking about we grew up outdoors, that's where we were and we were alive. We were alive, we had energy and we had clarity and we had drive and passion. We were young and full of energy. That's because we were outdoors. We were connecting to this beautiful planet that God created. Get out, it's summer, the sun is shining. If you're going to let this summer pass you by being locked indoors with artificial air and recycled air, then, my friends, you're not doing yourself any service. Get outside. I don't care what happens If you got to move your office outdoors. Move your office outdoors. Buy a laptop and do your work outside. Get out. Ideally, you won't even do your work outside. Just get out, go for walks. You know, in my building where I work, the company who's actually a landlord, has buildings in the area and oftentimes I would see employees just doing laps and I'd wonder what's going on in the early days, until I found out that they're actually encouraged, if not mandated, by the company, that you have to get out for a walk at certain times in the day. They don't allow you to sit in the office all day long. That's a wonderful thing. Get out and do it. My friends.
Speaker 1:Let's get back into this spectacular book that we're taking ancient wisdom and we're literally we're going through an archeological dig over here. We're pulling up thousand year old or multi-thousand year old wisdom and we're bringing it back up to the surface to allow us to be able to remember what it was that built humanity, that gave us the tools to be able to succeed and to thrive and to exist without going extinct. Until this current day. We're talking about the concept of having to work for a living. We said we have an obligation, if we want something, to go out and get it. Why? Why doesn't he just give it to us? Why doesn't he just say you know what? I'm going to give you all the things that you need your livelihood, your food, your relations. I'm going to give you all those things. You just focus on doing my will. And he's going to address this. He's going to address it in two different ways. He's going to give us two different reasons for this.
Speaker 1:One of the reasons that we'll discuss today is that he put us in this world as a test. He gives us tests on a daily basis. If you read the Torah, if you read the stories in the Torah, you know very clearly that a lot of these teachings and a lot of the stories and the circumstances that we hear about in the Torah are tests. Prime example of that is Abraham, abraham Avinu. God tested him, it says, 10 times, but those are 10 highlighted tests. We know that his whole life was full of tests. All of our forefathers and foremothers were tested on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:That's part of our existence, part of the reason we're put into this world, my friends, is to be tested to see what are we made out of. Why are we doing the things that we do? Do we have control over our desires or do our desires have control over us? And if you look around, my friends, it's not difficult to make an argument that our desires have taken control of us. That, my friends, is the exact reason why I'm doing this podcast, because I have witnessed with my own eyes, as many of you have also, that society has been reduced to materialism. That's it. There is so much wealth that has been created in this world that it has distracted us from all the amazing things that we should be doing. And this quest for material wealth and acquisitions is what's actually sinking us, because people will go after this and they will try and amass so much material wealth at any cost, at the cost of their relationships, at the cost of their own sanity and their own emotional or physical well-being.
Speaker 1:Like we just said Right, get outside. Why People don't get outside? Because they're so engrossed in creating wealth that they will lock themselves in their office and just go to work and sell, sell, sell, build, build, build, do, do whatever it is to be able to make as much as we can. And we don't get outside. We don't get the vitamin D from the sun. We're ending up taking supplements. Which generation had so many supplements, my friends? Which there's been? No, every generation that comes, it comes with more and more vitamins and supplements and minerals and all these different things.
Speaker 1:And you might say, oh, it's because we're aware now, when we're trying and we're striving to be healthier Nonsense, absolute nonsense. You're telling me previous generations didn't want to maintain good health. Of course they did, and the way that they did it was by getting outside and being active and eating good food that's not overly processed. Our generation has gone to an extent where we're now processing our food at rapid speeds. We're injecting our fruits and vegetables with massive growth hormones so that we can get more of it, and faster. You understand, that's where our heads are at right now. It's just about accumulating and amassing and, my friends, it's coming at a very, very heavy price for us.
Speaker 1:The first answer I should say to the question of why it is that man must work for his livelihood and, by the way, when I say man, I'm saying humanity, right, I'm a male, therefore I use man, or him or he. But in reality I'm speaking to everybody, and the book also does the same thing why man must work for his livelihood. And the first answer to that is because you're being tested. You're being tested Are you going to do the things that you need to do in order to get your income, and are you going to recognize where it's coming from? Or are you going to get so frustrated with your inability to achieve the level of income that you think you deserve, and so you will resort to whatever means necessary in order to get your income? You have to ask yourself that question.
Speaker 1:That's why one of the reasons why we have to work for a living because God wants to see. He says look, I've given you a manual. I've given you the user manual. I've told you the parameters within which you should operate in order for you to maintain a well-balanced, successful life and to avoid the pitfalls that come along with this life. I've given you those parameters. Now, are you going to operate within those parameters? Because we all know that just because we've been giving these mitzvahs these commandments, these parameters within which to operate, it doesn't mean we all do. We're not locked in chain and ball. We're not locked into it. God is not standing over here. He doesn't appoint an individual or put a gun to your head to say if you don't do it, you're going to die. That's not how it works. He gives you free choice. We're given the free will to determine what we're going to do. Are we going to go left or right? Are we going to choose good or bad, right or wrong? Those are our choices that we make every second of every day. So clearly, we have a choice whether or not we're going to operate within his parameters or not.
Speaker 1:So this test of trying to achieve our income, our livelihood, is really just that. It's a test. How are you going to do it? There's a beautiful analogy, by the way. We're on the pursuit of receiving wealth and we need it. It's very important. There's no question that money is important. It's what makes the world go around, makes life a lot easier in certain scenarios. So there's a beautiful analogy. It's actually a Kabbalistic analogy, and what it is is that our income is referred to as a barrel. If you can imagine a large wine barrel, yeah, and there's a pipe that comes down from heaven and goes right into that barrel. Okay, and that's your income. And so what happens is, when your income is determined on Rosh Hashanah, your income comes down to you through that pipe, into your barrel, and on that barrel there is a spigot. And when you need money that's your bank account you open up that spigot and money comes out of it. Whatever you need for your life comes out of that spigot.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're content, or if you're interested in refilling that barrel to higher levels, then you do the things and you operate within the parameters and the confines of what he tells you you need to do in order for him to increase what goes into that barrel. Or you're happy with what you get and you say, okay, thank God, I'm doing the right thing. God's giving me what I need. I don't need millions and billions and trillions. I'm perfectly content living at the level that I'm at right now. I'd like to maintain it. Wonderful, you've got your spigot and life is good. That's somebody who operates within the confines of God's Torah, of his commandments. But what about the one who says, no, I need more. I'm not happy with this. I want to amass massive levels of wealth at all costs. It doesn't matter to me what do you do and what does that individual do?
Speaker 1:The analogy is that individual takes spigots and he attaches it to the very same barrel. He puts on more spigots and the anticipation is that he will make more money. Why? Because he started a new business. He started a new side job, he invested in this company and he invested in that company. And he's got all these other worldly affairs, and each one of those affairs is another spigot that goes on the same barrel. What's he doing? He's just withdrawing his money. The same allotment that came to him at Rosh Hashanah at the beginning of the Jewish New Year. That allotment is just now coming from different sources. It's not increasing what he's been allotted. It's the same barrel, my friends. It cannot overflow Once it's full. It's full when you deplete from it. You can deplete it from one spigot, which gives you peace of mind, the ability to get outdoors and to experience nature and to spend time with your family and to harness and develop your relationship with your children and your loved ones and your community, and do all the other things that make us balanced individuals, which is critical to our success.
Speaker 1:Or you could be so busy figuring out where the next spigot is going to go on that barrel to somehow convince yourself that it's going to get you more money. My friends, it's foolish. Spend some time outside in nature and enjoy the life that you've been given, because we don't know what's tomorrow. My friends, nobody's guaranteed. We have no expiry date. We don't know when it's coming. Certainly we have an expiry date. We just don't know when it is. Could be today, could be in 10 years or 50 years or 70 years from now. We don't know. You have to live every day as if it's your exp.
