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
Episdoe 31 - Bad Backs, Broke Friends, and the God Who Never Runs Out
Trust is foundational to all relationships, but there's a profound difference between relying on humans and trusting our Creator. Even your most dependable friend—the one who drops everything when you call—remains limited by their resources, health, competing obligations, and the finite nature of human existence. Your friend might develop a bad back or face financial hardship, rendering them unable to help despite their genuine desire to do so.
The Gate of Trust teaches us that divine reliability operates on an entirely different level. Unlike our earthly relationships, God's capacity to help is truly unlimited—no resource constraints, no competing priorities, no physical limitations. Most remarkably, this divine support continues flowing even when we're undeserving, even when we're actively rejecting divine guidance. Each morning we awaken with functioning bodies and beating hearts despite our shortcomings, sustained by a patience that transcends human understanding.
We find confirmation of this divine commitment throughout our liturgy and scripture. The prayer after meals reminds us that "He gives nourishment to all flesh, for His kindness endures forever." If God sustains the smallest ant carrying a crumb to its nest, how much more will He provide for those created in His image? This understanding transforms everyday decisions, particularly around family planning. The teaching that each child enters the world with their own destined provision challenges our tendency to delay family growth due to financial concerns. As one rabbi pointedly observed, "Nobody ever died saying they had too many children."
Are you recognizing divine provision in your life? Have you developed the spiritual vision to see when the Creator steps up for you in ways no human could? Aligning with divine will positions us not just for basic provision but for abundant blessing. Take a moment today to reflect on instances of unexplainable provision in your life—those moments when help arrived from sources you couldn't have anticipated. These aren't coincidences but glimpses of an infinite commitment to your wellbeing.
Good morning everybody. Happy Sunday. I hope you had an amazing Shabbat. I know I certainly did. I hope it was meaningful and full of growth for you guys. I hope that you take the time to reflect on some of the things that we talk about during the week, because Shabbat is your day to do it.
Speaker 1:We finished off the introduction and we got into the first chapter of the Gate of Trust. It's a very short chapter it's two pages long but nonetheless it's very powerful. What we were saying on Friday is that the trust that we build, the reliance that we build upon our Creator, we can only compare and contrast it to our relationships that we're familiar with. Our relationships, such as those with our parents or our children or our friends and community, are all based and limited by time and space. In other words, if somebody wants to do something for you with all their heart, great, no problem. But as long as they're in this world, they're limited. They're limited to their resources, their abilities and their time to be able to do the things that they've committed to doing. Some people are more reliable than other people. Now I want you to take the most reliable person that you know your mother, your father, your spouse, your children, whoever they happen to be your best friend, the person that you know that if you call them and ask them for a favor, they don't ask why and they don't hesitate, they step up and they get the job done, and you know that they're going to do the job at least as much as you've asked of them, and if they're able to do more, they'll do more.
Speaker 1:Very few of us have those types of friends. The reason we don't have them is because people are busy. People have lives. They have commitments to their families, to their spouses, to their children, to their parents, to their employees, to their community, and as wonderful as your friendship is with them and as longstanding as it may be, you're another element of their life. There's so many people in their lives that they need to cater to, and many of them may take precedent over your relationship with them. Maybe you were great friends with them a long time ago, but today they have a spouse, that and a child. That takes precedent over you. That makes sense. So now their commitment to you becomes limited by their other relationships or by their means.
Speaker 1:Yesterday they had tons of money and the ability to help you. Today they're facing hardships and they can no longer assist, right, whatever it may be. Yesterday they were healthy and strong. They could come help you move your house. Today, suddenly, they have a bad back. They can't help you as much as they would love to. They can't. They're limited in their abilities.
Speaker 1:Hashem and his kindness is unlimited in his abilities and his resources. He doesn't lack abilities. He doesn't get bad backs, he doesn't run out of money. He is fully stocked and ready and able and willing and desiring to help you. You just have to reach out to him and when you do and you realize that wait a second there is nobody in the world that could have come to my aid in this situation the same way that God just did. There's nobody. Most people don't even know what you're dealing with unless you share it with them. He knows what you're dealing with even if you don't share it with him, so he steps up. The question is do we have the eyes to see when he does step up?
Speaker 1:That is the type of trust that the Shara B'Tochon is talking about. It's talking about a trust that we know with absolute certainty that the and wants to give and will give every single time, and here's the most beautiful part, Even if we're not deserving, because most of the time I don't care how good a person you are, most of the time we don't deserve it. We don't deserve so many of the things that we get. Yet he continues to give it to us in his infinite patience and his infinite love. He wants to see us succeed. He knows we're going through rough patches. He knows sometimes it takes a little bit longer for certain people to come around. It took me 33 years to come around. It might take you 66 years, I don't know. Only he knows. But he has patience. He has plenty of it.
Speaker 1:And in the meantime, while you're not doing the things that he's telling you to do, which are ultimately the best thing for you, as we've said many times, right, it's part of your instruction manual how to be successful Even we're not doing the things that he tells us to do. But more than that, we're going against him. We're doing the exact opposite of the things that he wants you to do. You're literally throwing his instruction manual in his face and saying I'm not interested. And maybe you're doing it willingly or unwillingly, or knowingly or unknowingly, but at the end of the day you're throwing it in his face. Not only are you not doing it, but you're doing the exact opposite. Guess what? You still wake up the next day, you still have a heartbeat, your lungs are still being filled with oxygen, your eyes can still see, your ears can still hear, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:He continues to give to you because he has infinite patience. That, my friends, is one of his attributes that we need to learn from. We need to learn how to have a tremendous amount of patience. We can never have infinite patience because we don't exist in an infinite world. We exist in a finite world. So, as much as we want to understand him and the way he is, we can only understand it based on our limitations. We will never understand the concept of infinity. It's not within our means, but that's where he exists, and we know that, as much as we love and as much as we want to do and help our friends and our family, he wants that infinitely more than we do. How do we know that he's sustaining us? How do we know that he's committed to sustaining us? Okay, it's very nice and well, jesse, you're telling me that God is going to take care of it. How do I know? I know, maybe you're just making that up. Maybe that's something that you feel inside because you've seen his hand in the past or whatever it is.
Speaker 1:And Rabbeinu Bachia gives many, many examples, but I'm just going to give you a of them. And we say them all the time in our prayers. We know about them, chapter and verse. He gives nourishment to all flesh, for his kindness endures forever. Where do we see that? We see that in the grace. After the meal, when we bench right, we say that his goodness has never lacked, that he nourishes all flesh, for his kindness endures forever. On top of that, we say that he, through his great goodness, we've never lacked and will never lack nourishment, forever and ever. It's very simple. It's two clear verses that we know, that we say every time after we have a meal with bread. We say those verses.
Speaker 1:And it says it elsewhere as well. You know, in the popular prayer of Asherah it says he opens up his hands and he satiates all of his creation. That means everything, guys. That doesn't just mean you and me. Think about this for a second. Okay, this is the same God when you look down on the ground and you see an ant trying to pull a little crumb into its little den right Into its nest. Who's giving him the strength? Who gave him that crumb? If that God is going to feed that, that ant, that is just a nothing creature with no soul and very limited purpose and one function, and that is going to be satiated, that's going to be taken care of and we're not.
Speaker 1:How ridiculous does that sound? It's people in India walking around worshipping cows, worshipping an animal that will use its meat and its milk, and they think it's a god. They literally think this animal is a god. And these very foolish people who attribute creation to an animal, a filthy animal on four legs, that this animal, who doesn't have consciousness, doesn't have his soul, doesn't have an ishama, and these people attribute godliness to this thing, that somehow this is responsible for any part of creation, that this is a god. And hashem still sustains them, he puts food in their belly, he gives them a heartbeat and he fills their lungs and eyesight and all these wonderful things that he gives everybody. Why? Because he's patient. He has all the patience in the world.
Speaker 1:He will wait as long as it takes, but the point being that he is committed and he says it chapter and verse, many times, many, many times throughout the Torah, that he is responsible. Just like a parent who brings a child into this world is responsible for the well-being and the welfare of that child, to make sure that it has food, to make sure that it has shelter, to make sure that it has opportunities, to make sure that it's healthy, that it's not sick, that it's taken care of when it's ill, the same way that a parent has that obligation. Unfortunately, today we have parents who shun that obligation, people who are not capable. They don't have the wherewithal, they don't have the ethic or moral standard to be able to maintain that responsibility, to accept it upon themselves, and so they abandon their children Again. Hashem lives in the infinite, so His commitment is infinite. It's not one that can be taken away. It's not one where he changes His mind. He's not your friend, joe from university, he is God. He is perfect. When he makes a commitment, it's done, it's good as gold.
Speaker 1:Let me give you a riddle that might illustrate that for you. Is there potentially a stone, a rock, a boulder that exists in creation that is so big that even God can't lift it? It's a simple question and there's only one answer to it. And the answer is yes. And you may ask yourself how is it possible? What are you telling me? He's all-powerful, he's all-knowledgeable, he's all-capable. There's nothing he can't do. You want to tell me there's a boulder in this world that God himself, who he created it? He can't lift it. And the answer is yes. Why is it a resounding yes? Because the only time that he cannot lift it is if he says I've created a boulder that I cannot lift. If he commits to saying that he cannot lift it, then he will not lift it. He will not be able to. Only he can limit, only he can create and only he can set the rules and the standards and the guidelines. And the best part is that he lives and operates through his very same standards. So when he commits to something, you don't have to think twice about it. We're not talking about our friends over here. We're talking about our creator. That is the concept of reliability. When we learn that that's who we trust and that we know that there's no alternative here, he has an obligation to provide for us. That's why, by the way, it says that every child comes into this world with his own income. What does that mean? That means Hashem provides for them.
Speaker 1:People are foolishly thinking no, I've got two children, I don't need any more. I've done my mitzvah. It's the mitzvah of pru or vu, which is to have children means you have to have a boy and a girl. Once you've had a boy and a girl, you could stop there and say I've fulfilled the mitzvah. But kids are a blessing. Kids are a tremendous blessing and to bring more of them to the world is an honor and it's a merit. And so people stop after two because they say wait a second, or maybe even after one, or maybe they never even have children because they tie it back to their income so foolishly. They say I can't afford to have children, I can't afford, so I'm going to wait until I have a better job, until I have a house, until I'm more secure, until I'm finished, whatever it is. They make excuse after excuse and all they're doing is shooting themselves in the foot. They're just delaying what's going to come to them anyways.
Speaker 1:That child comes with a bracha. The child comes with a blessing, with income. You don't have to worry about it. That child is going to be taken care of. Why? You don't have to worry about it. That child is going to be taken care of. Why? Because he who is your third partner.
Speaker 1:To make a child takes three Takes the mother, the father and God. And if God says I'm going to provide, I'm going to make sure that child comes with an income, then don't hesitate, my friends, have children. You want 10 children? Have 10 children. You want to have 20 children, and God allows it. Bring it 10 children. Have 10 children. You want to have 20 children and God allows it. Bring it into this world because that child comes with his income, his or her income. That's the way that this world works, my friend, and you benefit from having children.
Speaker 1:Nobody ever died saying I had too many kids. I wish I didn't have as many. Many people have gone upset at the fact that they didn't have more kids. So recognize that Hashem brought you into this world. He brought your children to this world and it comes with a guarantee that he is going to sustain and take care of you. It helps to do his will. It helps if you want more, if you want better, if you want the best. Do his will and remember his will is what's good for you. So do his will. You'll benefit every single time. Have a spectacular day, my friends. We'll speak tomorrow.
