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 92 - Beyond Coincidence: Choosing Your Path in a Divinely Ordered World
What if everything in your life—from challenges to blessings—happens for a specific reason? The Trust Factor podcast cuts straight to this profound truth: our world operates through a divine system of cause and effect, not random coincidence.
When we truly grasp this principle, it transforms how we approach everything, especially our careers and livelihoods. Unlike conventional wisdom that recommends chasing any available opportunity, Jewish sages across millennia have guaranteed something remarkable: we can choose work aligned with our authentic nature while trusting the divine system to meet our needs.
This episode explores the spiritual paradoxes we all face: Why must we work when God could simply provide? Why do righteous people sometimes struggle while corrupt individuals prosper? The answers reveal surprising wisdom about human nature. Perhaps most striking is the cautionary insight about wealth without purpose—those with unlimited money and time face what the host calls "a recipe for disaster," requiring extraordinary spiritual strength to avoid corruption.
Whether you're struggling with career decisions, questioning why your good intentions aren't being rewarded, or simply seeking deeper meaning in your daily work, this episode offers ancient wisdom with immediate practical application. The host challenges listeners to move beyond intellectual understanding to experiential knowledge—because until you implement these principles, you'll never truly know their transformative power.
Ready to discover how trust might reshape your approach to work and life? Listen now, and see what changes when you view your circumstances not as random events but as part of a perfectly calculated divine plan crafted specifically for your growth.
Good morning everybody and welcome to the Trust Factor. You know this is a podcast that when you take the teachings and the information that is being given over and you make real efforts in your life to implement and put these teachings into practice in your life, you don't only have a guarantee from me I'm nobody, I mean nothing. You have a guarantee from the creator of the world. It's throughout his Torah. You have a guarantee from the largest sages in Jewish history, going back generations, going back thousands of years. They've given you personal guarantees that if you do what we're talking about, your life simply becomes better. I can tell you that till I'm blue in the face, but it's like everything else in life you have to experience it in order to understand it. If you don't experience it, you simply cannot understand. Through my experiences, some things maybe yeah, some things you can experience through other people's lives and their experiences, but this and these principles that I'm discussing with you now, if you don't put them into practice, you will simply never know. They might sound like a nice idea for you, but there is a massive difference and it's a game changer when you actually implement the teachings.
Speaker 1:We're going to continue on in the book. My friends, we're going to start with a quick recap of what we've learned so far and then we're going to move into a discussion around choosing a job, choosing a livelihood, how you're going to make your income based on having trust, and everything that we've learned until now. How do we take all of these lessons and figure out how to find the right job, the right occupation? So it says, up until this point, we've learned that number one, that the book the Gate of Trust has set forth that the world is run with a cause and effect system that is guided by God. We've said very clearly everything is cause and effect. There is no such thing as coincidence. Remember that Sometimes the causes are not known to us. Most of the time, they're not known to us. They could be from this life, they can be from a previous existence, and they're oftentimes things that we just don't recall. We don't understand them, but know for absolute certain that whatever is happening to you is a direct result, direct result of something that you have done, good or bad. Yeah, that's number one. Number two we've established that man must make use of that system in order to obtain his sustenance. You understand that there is a system of cause and effect, utilize it, work within it. If you're constantly attributing coincidence as an excuse or an explanation or a way of living that you're going to work based on odds or statistics or whatever it may be, then you're going to have a very difficult go. And it's no coincidence that we're about to get into this whole concept of choosing a job, because if your job relies on happenstance and coincidence and statistics, good luck.
Speaker 1:Number three given two reasons why God made man exert himself for that purpose, we understood that there were two reasons that God said we need to work for a living and why everything is not given to us on a silver platter. And, if we recall correctly, number one was that it's a test. It's a test. Are you going to do his will and understand that there are confines within which you need to work in order to earn an honest living, in order to conduct yourself in a proper way, according to Torah values, or are you going to see the wicked people prospering? Are you going to see seeming injustices and think what am I doing all this good stuff for? Why am I being a goody two-shoes when I can see everybody else out there living a corrupt lifestyle and they've got everything in the world, or are you going to stay within the confines of what he expects from you and be happy with what you receive? That's the test.
Speaker 1:And the second reason he doesn't give us everything we said was that it is in order to keep us out of trouble. Right? You keep busy. You keep out of trouble. If you're busy at work, then you're not out doing things you shouldn't be doing, going places you shouldn't be going to. That's just how it works, and it's not just in religion, it's in life period. If you've got nothing but time on your hands, god help you. If you've got nothing but time and you don't need to work because you've got money, then you are a recipe for disaster. My friends, remember that. Take that with you for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1:If you are an individual, or you know an individual who does not have to work for a living, does not need to be occupied with earning a living, and has nothing but money and time, they are the equivalent to a recipe for disaster. It takes a spectacularly strong individual who fits that category to be able to live a righteous life, and I mean spectacularly strong. Good luck to most people who have that situation, because I don't know that I could ever, ever succeed in that situation. It is simply too much of a test. Number four, the book that we've learned so far from, is asserting that the supremely righteous are freed from that need.
Speaker 1:Remember we said that the more you do his will, the more you understand how this world is run and that everything comes from him and that everything is perfect and calculated and for your own good, and you're not going to get one dollar more than you need or that you're entitled to and one dollar less than what you're entitled to. When $1 more than you need or that you're entitled to and $1 less than what you're entitled to. When you understand that, when you understand that if you're going to be healthy, you're going to be healthy. If you're going to be sick, you're going to be sick. Again, I'm not excluding our efforts. You have to have a job and make an income. You have to go to the doctor when you're sick. You have to do these things, but you have to give a reasonable effort like every other human being. The rest is out of your hands. The effort is in our hands. The outcome is not.
Speaker 1:But he's saying over here you're talking about a supremely righteous individual. How many are left in the world like this, my friends? I could tell you not many. I don't know how many, but not many. There are not a lot of people who fit this bill. But these people are the ones who don't have to do the work, they don't have to show up, they don't have to make even the modest effort when it comes to the material needs in this world, because their whole life, their entire existence, is running with God. They have both feet in that world. They're just here physically, but their feet, their hands, everything operates in the spiritual world, in the world of divinity and religiosity. They're not involved in the material, mundane things. So for them it's an entirely different ballgame. My friends, and number five, so far we've learned that the righteous sometimes suffer and the wicked sometimes prosper. So we just spent like the better part of two weeks talking about that. I don't think we need to beat that again, but everybody understands it. Not coincidentally, I had another friend, same friend Yanni reached out to me this morning and asked me a simple question which we've addressed in the past, and the question was if I'm well-intended and I'm a good person and I'm living a life of meaning and purpose and goodness, and I want to do all these good things.
Speaker 1:Why wouldn't God facilitate it? Why wouldn't he give me money, put it in my bank? Why wouldn't he give me a bigger house? Why wouldn't he give me more opportunities to be able to finance Torah or institutions or goodness or whatever it is? And the answer is what we've been discussing for two weeks. There are so many answers. We will never know what the real answer is. Only he knows that. But we've given so many potential answers.
Speaker 1:One of them was that maybe it's not for you in this world. Maybe you were that guy in the previous existence and you checked off that box. You did what you were supposed to do already. You were tested in that area. God gave you all that wealth and you did well with it. You'll get a pat on the back. Guess what? In this world, you don't have to pass that test anymore. And that's exactly what it is. It's a test, because another reason why he may not give it to you is as well-intended as you think you are.
Speaker 1:I'm the best person in the world. Oh, if I had money. How many times have we said this? If I had millions, if I won the lottery, I would buy this person that and I would give this person this and I would save the world and I would make the world a better place. Right, wonderful? We all walk around with rose-colored glasses, but things change when it actually happens and it lands in your lap. Suddenly, a lot of those ideas, as well-intended as you were when you didn't have it, suddenly, when you have it, all those go out the window. Why? Because, intended as you were when you didn't have it. Suddenly, when you have it, all those go out the window. Why? Because your circumstances change. The people come out of the woodworking. All of a sudden, the taxman is there looking for his portion. All of a sudden, people are calling you wondering where you've been for the last 30 or 40 years, when it's really where have they been? Things change, my friends. Suddenly guards go up and suddenly your approach to life changes. So there are many, many reasons. Bottom line, we don't know, but what we do know is that they are all for our good.
Speaker 1:I want to just give a quick intro to what we're about to talk about and then we'll pick up with the rest tomorrow.
Speaker 1:It says over here that, having established the obligation for people to strive after means of earning a livelihood. We will now explain that there is no need for every person to seek out after means of earning a livelihood. We will now explain that there is no need for every person to seek out every means of sustenance that presents itself. Rather, each person has the option of choosing the occupation that is most suited to his or her personality. That's a big, big statement. Can you imagine, especially in an economy like the one that we're living in right now, where jobs are scarce, where companies have closed in record amounts in the last five or six years since COVID, and maybe even a little before, that it's very, very difficult, my friends. So the reality is, this is a bold statement that suddenly we have the luxury of choosing. So I'm sure we'll get into it tomorrow and we'll flush it out a little bit. Until then, have an amazing day, my friend.
