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 76 - Money Isn't Everything: The True Value of a Godly Life
Have you ever questioned why we must struggle to earn a living? Why can't the Divine simply provide what we need without the labor, stress, and uncertainty that accompanies our financial journey?
The Trust Factor podcast tackles this profound question head-on, drawing wisdom from the ancient Jewish text "Duties of the Heart" and its illuminating "Gate of Trust" section. We unpack two fundamental reasons behind our need to work: as a divine test of character and as protection against the corrupting influence that unearned wealth often brings.
The episode shares a compelling real-world example that landed on my desk just yesterday – a story of someone living a morally bankrupt life while enjoying extraordinary financial success. This stark contrast appears everywhere around us: those doing everything wrong yet prospering financially, while many good, honest people struggle to make ends meet. This apparent injustice represents perhaps our greatest spiritual test. Do we maintain our integrity and values when the evidence seems to suggest that virtue doesn't pay?
What makes this challenge particularly difficult is our skewed perception. Just as media gravitates toward negative stories, we disproportionately hear about those who gain wealth through questionable means. Meanwhile, countless people living balanced, meaningful lives of moderate prosperity achieved through honest work go unnoticed. Like gamblers who broadcast only their wins and hide their losses, we receive a distorted picture that virtue doesn't pay – when reality tells a different story.
The wisdom shared here offers profound perspective: rather than obsessing over financial outcomes, put reasonable effort into your work while focusing primarily on family, community, spiritual growth, and making the world better. Join us as we explore how to maintain faith and perspective in a world that constantly challenges our understanding of divine justice and provision. When you focus on what truly matters, everything falls into place financially – in exactly the measure that serves your highest good.
Good morning everybody. Welcome to the Trust Factor TGIF. It is Friday and this is the only podcast that will guarantee your success when you implement the divine age-old teachings. Thank God it's Friday, my friends, but remember there is a war going on raging in Israel. This isn't Hamas, it's not Hezbollah. This is the authority that finances and supports, and has been doing so, those very same organizations for generations. This is a much more difficult operation.
Speaker 1:Iran has obviously demonstrated that they're very well equipped and capable of hitting precise targets, such as hospitals, which obviously the world is not going to condemn. They will only condemn it when Israel hits hospitals in Gaza which happen to also be military bases for Hamas. When Iran hits a Jewish hospital and there's no military base inside of it, we hear crickets. We hear absolutely no condemnation from the World Health Organization, the United Nations. None of these organizations say anything. Crickets. That's what you should remember every time you listen to the news and you hear people trash-talking Israel and you hear people trying to play the moral high ground. Take the moral high ground, but at the end of the day, they can't even bring themselves to condemn a murderous terrorist regime which is directly targeting civilian hospitals in Israel with absolutely no military infrastructure in it, but that's the way it's supposed to be.
Speaker 1:My friends, hashem runs this world. We've always been alone, and nothing changes. It's not coincidental that it wasn't that long ago that the Jews were being persecuted in Persia modern-day Iran, we were on the brink of total and complete annihilation, and if it wasn't for the Jewish queen and her husband, the Persian king Hashverosh, we would cease to exist. And so maybe, just maybe, this whole idea that we're talking about now of cause and effect we're seeing play out in real time. We're seeing the same Jewish nation that was saved by the Persian king at the time is now coming to the rescue of the Persian people, to redeem them from this tyrannical regime. God willing, it should end quickly.
Speaker 1:Let's get back into this gold that we've been reading about, this exploration and understanding of why it is that we, as human beings, are forced Sometimes we would think, against our will, or sometimes it's very difficult and we're forced to do work, we're forced to generate an income, we're forced to do the things that we need to do in order to get the result that we need. Why can't God just give us what we need? Why do we have to make such efforts? And so we said there were two reasons that this book Chovot HaLevavot, the Duties of the Heart, and, more specifically, shai Rabi Tachon, the Gate of Trust. He brings two beautiful explanations. Number one is that it's a test. There are confines, there are borders and a procedure that you need to operate within in order to to fall in line with the boss and his explanation, or his decree, of how you should live and operate your life. This is a test. Are you going to do that or are you going to try and undermine that because you feel that you're due more, or you're not sure 100% where your income is coming from, and so you're going to resort to all kinds of other things? Let me give you an example.
Speaker 1:By the way, this is not coincidental. Just yesterday, after we started talking about this, I had somebody who's a friend come into my office, explained to me that he is just coming back from a very quick trip with a few of his associates. One of those associates was an individual who, the entire trip, spoke to him about his life and the shambles that his life was in. These are all non-Jews not that it's necessarily relevant, because they could have just as easily been Jewish amount of money that his wife was trying to take from him, the fact that he's estranged from his children, and the fact that he's an alcoholic and the fact that he's addicted to women and everything that you can imagine wrong and decrepit in an individual's life. This person was actively living and it wasn't as if he was upset about it. He was almost boasting about it. But in the meantime this individual is printing money. He's running a business that is massively successful. Now he happens to come from money as well. I'm sure that helps, but at the end of the day, why am I telling you this story? I'm telling this because it happened to me yesterday, where I'm just hearing this story firsthand from the individual who was there telling me.
Speaker 1:On the same day we were discussing about this concept of being tested on our panasan, our income, and all I'm thinking about is here I am working hard, trying to maintain an honest, clean business, trying to live a godly life of Torah and mitzvahs and doing the right thing, and it's not easy. Money does not come easy. Business is up and down. It's a roller coaster. We struggle for our money. It's very difficult. I'm not independently wealthy.
Speaker 1:I work hard for a living and here I am listening to a story of an individual who lives a decrepit lifestyle, who does everything opposite of what God says we should do, does everything opposite, makes no efforts in that arena at all and does all the wrong things. And yet he's printing money, he's living a life where he's making untold fortunes and spending it on the worst things in the world. Meanwhile, I know of so many good, honest, hardworking people who are really really struggling, or people who are coming to the end days of their life or they're in retirement and they barely can afford to scrape by. And then I see people like this making so much money they don't know what to do with it. And he's just one example, but that example came to me yesterday.
Speaker 1:There's no such thing as coincidences, my friend, and I'm telling you this because this is the test for me and for you. We see this all the time. We see these people who are not doing what they're supposed to do and yet they're making so much money while we are doing our best to do the things and to live the life that God prescribed for us. And it's difficult. If that's not a test, my friends, I don't know what is. We have to overcome that test, and how do we overcome it?
Speaker 1:By remembering that, just like the media, just like the news is always negative, that's the stuff that sells. Just the same way that we will always hear the negative stories coming out of the media and not the positive ones, I will always hear, and you will always hear, about the stories of people living decrepit lives, who happen to have untold fortunes. You're not going to hear about the guys who live a conservative, value-based life, who have beautiful families, wives and children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, and honest, hardworking people who built great businesses, who are doing the right thing in supporting communities and giving charity beyond your wildest imaginations and occupying themselves all day long making sure that people have what they need. There are so many people like this. I know many of them, but it's not fun and exciting, it's not juicy, so you're not going to hear about it. You're going to hear about the other stories.
Speaker 1:Remember that it's the guy who goes to the casino. The gambler will never tell you about the losses, because they're sad stories. He'll only tell you about the victories, the wins, the big stuff that gets you excited and gets your blood pumping. That's the reality. It's olam ha-shekar, my friends. Remember we said that it's a world of lies. Know that what you're seeing you should take with a grain of salt and constantly remind yourself that it's not reality, that there are so many other people out there doing the right thing and benefiting from it in a tremendous way, and the world is benefiting from them.
Speaker 1:This individual I just told you about the world does not benefit from. I can assure you that His wife and kids do not benefit from it. His extended family does not benefit from it. He probably has no community and even if he did, they do not benefit from him. The world in general does not benefit from an individual who lives a decrepit life, who has no control over their actions because they're driven by their heart entirely and they've been bought and sold entirely to a life of secularism and materialism. There is no positivity, there is no benefit that can come out of that to impact the rest of the world in a good way. It's simply just a bad example of how to live. And then the individual telling me the story capped it off by reminding me that he reminded himself of what he had at home waiting for him a beautiful wife, amazing kids, a wonderful family, grandkids and that he had it much better than that individual did. As much as that individual tried to paint the rosy picture, better than that individual did as much as that individual tried to paint the rosy picture. Everybody listening to it knew that it was a sad story and it confirmed for us the beautiful lives that we live. Let's remember.
Speaker 1:The second reason that we have to work for a living is because if we have too much money, like this individual, then we will end up in trouble. Nine out of 10 times that's the risk. It doesn't happen every single time. We know that there are very good people who have a lot of money, but they've lived a life of Torah and mitzvahs. They've lived a life of values and morals and they've invested in understanding God's ways and because of that, when they have the wealth, they conduct themselves accordingly. It's still a major test for them, but they are much better equipped to handle the situation than somebody who is devoid of God entirely.
Speaker 1:So remember that this is a kindness that God is doing. He's saying listen, it's not for everybody, and if you're not meant to be a millionaire, you won't be, and if you are, you will be. That's the bottom line, so you don't have to overdo it. You can actually create a well-balanced life for yourself and for your family and, at the end of the day, whatever financial outcome there needs to be, as long as you put in your effort, as long as you show up and do what you're supposed to do, which is not sit in the office for 18 hours a day right at the expense of your family and your community.
Speaker 1:It's not about doing what this individual did. It's about doing the right thing Put in a reasonable hours, make reasonable efforts, and whatever is supposed to happen will happen. You do not have to worry about your living. Worry about your families, worry about your children, worry about your community, worry about your, your children, worry about your community, worry about your relationship with God, worry about making this world a better place, and when you do that, then everything will fall into place for you financially. Have yourselves a spectacular Shabbat, my friends, and we will pick up again on Sunday.
