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 96 - Earning a Living: The Spiritual Perspective on Work
You've been thinking about work all wrong. That daily grind you approach with resignation isn't just about earning money—it's actually fulfilling a divine commandment. This paradigm shift transforms everything.
The Trust Factor podcast dives deep into ancient wisdom that completely reorients our relationship with earning a living. We explore how approaching your job as a mitzvah (commandment) rather than merely a means to financial security elevates your everyday actions to spiritual significance. Whether you're a Wall Street trader or a sanitation worker, the spiritual value remains identical—what matters is your mindset.
We examine fascinating parallels between modern work challenges and the biblical account of Israelites wandering in the desert. Their reluctance to enter the Promised Land mirrors our own fear of transitioning from passive dependence to active participation in a world of cause and effect. This resistance reflects a timeless human tendency to avoid responsibility even when it means forfeiting greater purpose.
The episode outlines five critical principles about trust: only God deserves absolute trust, He sees past our pretenses, dividing trust undermines its power, true trust requires following commandments, and God operates through cause and effect requiring our effort (hishtadlut). When we fully embrace this perspective, workplace anxieties and material concerns fade into mere "noise" as we focus on fulfilling divine commands with excellence.
Ready to transform your perspective? Listen now and discover how shifting your mindset can bring greater success while freeing you from being defined by it. Subscribe to continue exploring how ancient wisdom provides practical guidance for modern challenges.
Good morning everybody. Welcome to the Trust Factor, the podcast that guarantees your success when you implement its divine, age-old teachings. We are wrapping up this concept that we've been talking about with regards to making a living and we're going to summarize what we've learned so far with regards to finding a job or which business you should get into. Once you've gotten into that business, once you've found that job, what's your mindset going to be like? We'll summarize it and then we'll move in. We're actually going to finish chapter three and move into chapter four. So I want to reiterate real quick we said that if somebody is trying to get into an industry or having a job, no matter how it is that you're earning your living, your mindset should always be that what you're doing, when you wake up in the morning and you go into the office or you go to work and you do what you need to do, the only thing that you should be thinking about is that you're doing it because you were commanded to do it. It's actually a mitzvah, it's a commandment, it's one of the 613. If you're thinking about it that way, when you get up and you go to work and you make your effort and you do what's required of you. You're doing it because it's a mitzvah. You're doing it because God told you to do it, not because you need to feed your family. That's secondary and tertiary, my friends. Those things come after. They are a means to an end. The fact that you're doing it as a spiritual commandment, that is a means to eternity. That is an infinite means, my friends. So the reality is that you have to know that I'm going to work to do a mitzvah. What comes as a result of that?
Speaker 1:Obviously, as long as you're doing something that is legitimate, above board and is capable and should bring you the required income that you need to live a Jewish lifestyle, to live a lifestyle where you're putting your kids in private schools, teaching them Torah, living in a Jewish community where you have Jewish resources around you, which is not an easy feat, my friend. You know very well that in order to live in a Jewish community, surrounded by synagogues and community and Jewish resources and schools, and whatever it may be, it is always expensive. That tells you something. It's not that the Jews all have the money in the world. It's not true. There are many. The vast majority, just like every other nation. The vast majority are living by modest means. There are the few who have much more than others do, and then we also have our poor, my friends, just like every other nation.
Speaker 1:But if you want to live in a Jewish community, like not just the Jewish people do, you will find often that other cultures follow us very closely. Wherever we live, wherever we congregate, they come, they want to be our neighbors, for obvious reasons. They know full well that we live a life of Torah, meaning of purpose, of purpose of education, of all the higher standards of living that we expect for ourselves and our children. They want for themselves and their children also. So oftentimes we see these ethnic groups following us and that makes the cost of real estate skyrocket, because they want the good that we want for ourselves and that we are often bringing into this world.
Speaker 1:So it's not easy, but it doesn't matter. It does not matter. We said it doesn't matter if you're a stock and bond trader or if you're a garbage man, or if you're in the snack food business or you're working at the bank. It does not matter. At the end of the day, my friends, what matters is that you're going to work, because you were told that you need to do that as a commandment, and you will be provided with all of your provisions. Whatever you need to conduct a kosher life, a life that is above board, will be provided to you. Remember, we've said, in the way that a person wants to go, god has an obligation to take them. So it doesn't matter what you're doing yes, even in fact, if you want to do bad things, he has an obligation to help you. If you want to earn money and spend it the wrong way, he has an obligation to help you. My friends, why? Because after 120 years, when you come up to the pearly gates and you've got to give an accounting, you have no excuse. You asked for the Oreo cookies, over the $10,000. He gave you the Oreo cookies. You have no complaints. My friends, that's how it works.
Speaker 1:Now let's finish this off, let's put a bow on it, and it says very clearly, actually, what I had just said that when you go to work, you understand that you're doing it as a commandment, that one's effort is merely a way of actualizing the system of cause and effect. Your action is is simply that. It is a signal from you, it is an effort, it is a sign that you're making to say I understand God, that you run this world through a system of cause and effect, that food has stopped falling from the skies like it did when the Jews left Egypt. Yeah, then we didn't have to make an effort. We were carried for four years throughout the desert. We had food falling from the sky, our clothes did not wear on our bodies, our shoes did not wear on our feet, women did not have pain in childbirth. A well followed us in the desert providing us with water. We did not have to make an effort. We were covered in secure clouds of glory that we know. We read in the Torah very clearly. Today that no longer exists. And in fact you'll remember a few weeks ago we were talking about the Torah portion of the spies, that part of the reason that we had to spend 40 years in the desert.
Speaker 1:We got to the border a lot quicker than 40 years, my friends, when we left Egypt. To get from Egypt to Israel is not a 40-year trek. I don't know how long. It would take a month, a few weeks, I'm not sure but it's certainly not 40 years. Why did it take 40 years? Because when we got to the border, when we got to the edge of crossing over the nation in their frailty, demanded that we sent in a reconnaissance mission, that we find out, we send in spies and find out what's waiting for us.
Speaker 1:And when they came back, they weren't supposed to come back with their opinion, but they did. They came back with a negative opinion and they stopped the Jewish nation from entering into the land. And God, as a form of punishment, said you no longer deserve this land. The generation that corrupted God's intention no longer deserves to go into the land. The generation that corrupted God's intention no longer deserves to go into the land. And so for 40 years we trekked through the desert.
Speaker 1:Why 40 years? Because during those 40 years, everybody over the age of 20 had to die off. That generation did not merit going into the land. They had to die off right. That was the idea they could have had. They could have had gone into the land right away, but they didn't. They were stopped. Why? Why didn't they go into the land?
Speaker 1:And you can talk about this, because there are many, many opinions, but one of the opinions is exactly what we're talking about. They knew that as soon as they cross over the land into the promised land of Israel, that now all of this lifestyle that they've been enjoying since they left Egypt being cradled in clouds of glory, having food coming from the sky, having a well of water following them, not having to work for a living, not having to sweat for their livelihood, women not having pain in childbirth all these wonderful things that were basically cradled like babies since they left Egypt. Now they knew that, as soon as they cross over into Israel, all that comes to an end. Now they have to leave the nest and they need to be productive on their own. All of those open miracles that were produced for them in the desert will cease to exist. They knew this and so, because of that, they did everything that they could to not enter into the land. Right? Similar concept over here.
Speaker 1:My friends, this is exactly what we're talking about. We have to know that there is a system of cause and effect. That's the way this world was created. We are no longer in the clouds of glory. We try oftentimes to mimic them, to emulate them, like we do during Sukkot, the holiday of Sukkot, where we built the huts in our backyards. Right, that is mimicking the clouds of glory and putting our complete trust in God. But reality is. Today's reality is not the same as today's thousands of years ago when we walked through the desert. Let's summarize what we've learned up until chapter three, and tomorrow we get into chapter four.
Speaker 1:Number one God alone possesses seven qualities that are necessary in order to deserve one's absolute trust. He has remember, guys, we're going back to day one he has, and only he has, those qualities. God observes a person and is aware of his innermost thoughts, so he knows whether one's trust in him is genuine or not. You're only fooling yourself when you think that you trust in God but your actions say different, when your thoughts say different but you project outwardly that you actually have trust in God. Only he knows what's really in your heart.
Speaker 1:Number three trust calls for placing one's trust exclusively with God. Trusting in him and any other entity undermines trust and is a strong reason to make one meet with failure. There is no other individual on planet earth. There is no such thing, and is a strong reason to make one meet with failure. There is no other individual on planet earth, there is no such thing and is another God that we can put our absolute trust in. We've said there are powers that he put into this world, but he did not put them in here for us to trust in them. They have their own roles in this world. There's only one power that we need to put trust in, absolute trust, and that is him.
Speaker 1:Number four along with trust, one must be vigilant. To heed God's will by performing the commandments and avoiding transgressions to the best of one's ability. To do otherwise is hypocrisy. Acknowledge that he gave us the commandments, acknowledge that he gave us the sins and acknowledge that the Torah is the manual. It is the operating manual for humanity. It was given once and only once. It is the only document in the galaxies that is of a divine origin, that came from the finger of God. Everything else, every other document and manuscript, my friends, is written by man and is therefore flawed.
Speaker 1:And number five we've learned that God carries out his decrees in this world through a system of cause and effect. What goes around comes around, and this requires a person to engage in what we said was hishtadlut, the Hebrew word for making an effort to earn our livelihood. We cannot sit back and do nothing and expect to earn our livelihood. One must recognize that hishtadlut, his effort, is a fulfillment of God's will, for he wants men to work for his sustenance. But in terms of results. Our efforts are simply a way of bringing into reality that which Hashem has decreed for us, which God has said is for us. If we don't make the effort, then he will not bring down that pipe of goodness into our lives. We need to make an effort. We've said in the past if we see somebody, you're driving along the road and you see an individual in the olden days this is a Talmudic reference an individual driving a horse and cart and that cart falls over and this individual asks you for help and he's perfectly capable of helping himself, but he doesn't. He sits on the side watching you do all the work. You are not allowed to help him. God helps those who help themselves to help him. God helps those who help themselves. That is what we've learned to date, my friends.
Speaker 1:With so much more in details about how to choose a livelihood, what kind of a mindset to have when you're in that livelihood, remember, my friends, it's all about him. When you do these things, life becomes sweeter. You stop worrying about the minutiae, about the mundane, about the silliness, the things that come up, what I call noise. It's noise, it's a distraction, all these efforts and challenges and difficulties that you need to be faced with on a daily basis. They are all there because you allow them to be there. You allow them to. They're forced on you, no question. Governments and policies and politicians and media and the system forces on you with all their effort, but it is entirely in your hands to accept it or to push it away, to accept their decrees as truth or to accept his decrees as truth. When you accept his decrees, my friends, as the absolute truth, you live a life of comfort and of joy and of purpose. My friends, that sums it up for today. We will speak more tomorrow.
