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 103 - You Can't Skydive Your Way to Heaven: Sacred Lessons on Self-Preservation
What happens when we put our lives at risk unnecessarily? Why do some people work minimal hours yet "print money" while others struggle with multiple jobs? These profound questions form the foundation of our latest spiritual exploration.
The Trust Factor dives deep into the concept of life's sanctity, revealing a startling spiritual principle: harming yourself is considered even more severe than harming others. This counterintuitive truth stems from the understanding that no one is closer to you than yourself, making self-endangerment particularly grievous in divine eyes. We unpack the consequences of extreme sports and unnecessary risk-taking, showing how these activities deplete your spiritual merits – the very currency that protects you during divine judgments.
Perhaps most revolutionary is our examination of the financial realm. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there exists no correlation between hours worked and wealth accumulated. We've witnessed investment advisors working minimal hours while generating millions, and hardworking professionals with advanced degrees struggling to make ends meet. This reality points to a profound truth: while reasonable effort is necessary, ultimate success comes through divine decree. Like the farmer who must plow and sow while trusting God for the harvest, we must work diligently yet recognize our limitations.
The spiritual economics revealed in this episode will transform your understanding of work, protection, and divine provision. Take the path of reasonable effort combined with unwavering trust, and watch as your rewards become "unreasonably spectacular." Are you ready to align your life with these timeless principles?
Good morning everybody. Welcome to the Trust Factor, the podcast that guarantees your success when you implement its divine teachings. My friends, we talked about suicide. Not a good idea, my friends. Whether you're doing it yourself or whether you're putting yourself in harm's way and you're doing something that can endanger your life and can result in serious harm or death, you are simply not allowed to do it. And in fact, chavot HaLevavot discusses over here how severe that is, and he brings chapter and verse and he brings example after example telling us that, basically, killing yourself is actually worse than killing a stranger. Why? Because the closer the individual is to you, the more heinous the crime is. You have a loved one and God forbid you should go and cause harm or kill a loved one. It shows how heinous your action is. Somebody that's completely unrelated, or maybe even an enemy. Okay, you can try and explain it away as much as you want, still you don't have a license to do it. But the closer the individual is to you, the worse the crime. Who's the closest that you can get to yourself? And the answer is you. There's nobody closer to you than you and so, by definition, committing suicide is the most heinous crime that you could possibly commit and getting involved in things like medical assistance in dying or jumping out of airplanes and doing other things that activities that we know will end up in severe harm or death will take away your merits. Now I went a little bit ahead over here because Kavota Lavo is about to talk a little bit about that, but let's get into a little bit and see what the book says with regards to what happens. Number one if you attempt it or even if you get into extreme sports or activities, the choices are, the options of what may happen to you are number one you either end up dead or you chew up. You eat up your merits. Remember we talked about that.
Speaker 0:This world is based on a merit system. You collect merits in this world. Your actions give you merits or deplete your merits. One of the two. Okay, so you do mitzvahs, you gain merits. You help people, you gain merits. People depend on you. You have a network of individuals whom you support, who you teach Torah, to, who you do all these wonderful things for you are gaining merit. In other words, it becomes more difficult for God to take you from this world prematurely, because you've gained the merit to be able to stay here and continue to do these amazing things. So if you've got merits, you're in a good place, but we've said you can hang on to those merits. For a very important time and place there could be a severe decree, there could be something that God forbid comes down from the heavens that says you're in trouble, you did X, y or Z and therefore you're in trouble and you're deserving of severe punishment or even death. And it is precisely those merits that come to save you in your time of need. You may not even know that they're being used, you may not even know that you've got a decree against you, but in the heavens there is an entirely different operation going on, which we are not privy to, and it is often those merits that come to your rescue.
Speaker 0:Let's discuss, let's read from the book what Chavot HaLevavot says about merits. The other possibility, he says, is that an individual will be rescued from death. So you're involved in skydiving, you're involved in bungee. So you're involved in skydiving, you're involved in bungee jumping, you're involved in extreme sports, and God is saving you from death. You should have died long ago, but he's actively involved in saving you with the help of the Creator, it says. But in the process, many of your accumulated merits for past mitzvahs will be wasted in order to pay for his salvation and he will forfeit his reward for those mitzvahs. Do you hear this, guys? You have tremendous reward waiting for you Tremendous Not just in this world, but also in the next. There are many mitzvahs that we benefit from here and now and their primary reward is waiting for us in the next world. So we double dip here. He is explaining to you that if you choose to live a life that is reckless and abandon all safety and security and not do the things that you're required to do to guard your life, and you put yourself in harm's way for no reason, and you're saved. You should know that it's not coincidence. You're saved because you've used up your merits, your reward that's associated with those merits that's supposed to be coming to you. You lose. They're gone.
Speaker 0:It says a person should never stand in a dangerous place and say that a miracle will be performed for him and he will be saved, but perhaps a miracle will not be performed for him and he will die. And if a miracle is in fact performed for him and he survived, it will be deducted from his merits. You hear this, guys. This is a very, very important concept. Over here, you have to be very careful and guard your life, which is the exact opposite of this concept of suicide. God forbid. We continue on. We're done with the basics of sustaining life.
Speaker 0:Now we're talking about how somebody who trusts in God earns a basic living. What's your outlook, or what should it be, when it comes to earning a living? He says just as we have said in regards to the obligation to preserve one's life and to avoid death, so do we say in regard to the obligation to pursue ways and means of maintaining one's health and of obtaining food, clothing and shelter and the good qualities necessary for basic living, as well as to try and stay away from situations that conflict with these things. Just as regarding life and death, one should not say that, since God has already decreed how long he will live, he doesn't need to take care to avoid dangerous situations, so, too, regarding these other essential matters, you have to make a proper effort, while maintaining clear conviction that the various means that you pursue will not benefit you in this area even one iota, except by the decree of God.
Speaker 0:You can work all day long, 18, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, my friends, it will have no bearing on how much you earn, how much you eat, how many material things you can acquire. There is and I've mentioned this in the past there is no positive correlation between the amount of hours or the effort that you expend at work and the amount of money that you make. There is none. I will show you so many people with masters and phds and they've struggled and they've worked hard and they know and they have unmatched knowledge in certain areas, and they are not even working in their field and at the same time, I can show you people who don't know how to read and write, who can barely get by with language, and yet they are printing money. Everything that they touch turns to gold.
Speaker 0:My friends, there is no correlation. If you want to look at it, just look somebody who's got two jobs, working overtime, day job, night job, taking care of a family, paying down bills. They're living paycheck to paycheck. And the guy who's on the golf course, who's got an investment portfolio that he's managing and he's got people managing for him and he's out hitting golf balls all day long. He's printing, printing money. He's making millions.
Speaker 0:I was in that industry, I started off in finance. I can tell you I've seen it firsthand Some guys investment advisors who have teams managing their clients' portfolios, and these guys show up to the office once or twice a week. It doesn't correlate to the amount of time that he spends in the office. He spends his days on his boat, on vacation, on the golf course, and he's making more money than anybody else could ever imagine, while the other person is working two jobs and possibly even looking for a third to be able to make ends meet. There is no positive correlation. I will show you negative, miserable people printing money and I will show you righteous, good people who can't make their month end. And I will show you, vice versa, great, wonderful people who are well-intended, who maybe don't have the expertise or the experience or the knowledge and are still making money. And I'll show you the same miserable people who are negative and may have all the knowledge in the world that can't make any money, who are negative and may have all the knowledge in the world that can't make any money. In short, there is no direct correlation.
Speaker 0:You cannot point to it and say, ah, if only I do that, if only I get into that industry, then I will make money. Oh, the real estate market is hot right now. Let me get my real estate license. I'll start to sell houses, because every real estate agent I know is making all kinds of money. You get into the real estate game and guess what? It's not working out. You can't sell a house why?
Speaker 0:It doesn't make sense. All your associates are making money, everybody's got listings, everybody's closing deals. You can't close a deal. You think it's coincidence, you think that there's something wrong with you. You don't have the ability to sell. You're even a better salesman than they are, but you can't close a deal. Why? Because it's out of your hands. It is out of your hands. The only thing you need to do, my friends, like we've said before, is choose yourself a good career and give 100% in the office. 100% means a reasonable effort, the same reasonable effort that's expected by everybody else. Let's read a little bit.
Speaker 0:He says a farmer must plow the land, clear it of thorns and sow it, then irrigate it if water is available and, at the same time, trust in the creator to make the land fruitful and protect it from mishaps, so that its crop will be plentiful and the Creator will bless it, and it would not be proper for him to leave the land without working it and sowing it, while relying on the Creator's decree that he will have sons and daughters? Wait a second. God feeds idol worshipers. God feeds insects. Why do I have to work so hard? I bought a field. I made my effort. Now I'm going to sit at home and I'm going to play cards. I'm going to do something that's completely unproductive and God's going to manage my field for me. It's not going to happen. Your vegetation needs to be cared for. You need to take care of the land. You need to make sure that you do the work required to ensure that you have good crops and that you get good yields from your efforts. Right, you have to make that effort.
Speaker 0:If you don't, open miracles do not happen anymore, my friends. We simply don't merit it, and God does not run the world that way. We've seen in the past when he operated the world in a way of open miracles, where we as a nation were surrounded by open miracles. We were saved by open miracles in Egypt, with 10 crazy plagues, each one going against nature. We had the water split for us when we walked through water on dry land, we had food falling from the sky. We had everything taken care of for us, we had no effort to expend, we were living on open miracles. And still and still, despite all that, what did we see? That the nation was still complaining, that we were still sinning. We were still making golden calves in the desert, right after we heard God speaking to us so clearly. Open miracles would not make a difference.
Speaker 0:You think to yourself why doesn't God just make himself available to me? Let me see, show me that he's actually here. And then, when I know absolutely, then I'll start keeping Wrong Wrong. History has shown us that he's actually here. And then, when I know absolutely, then I'll start keeping Wrong, wrong. History has shown us that it's simply not true.
Speaker 0:Just think of a child and a parent. Remember that analogy. A parent is raising a child, is disciplining a child, telling that child you can't have chocolate, stay away from the chocolate cupboard, you've had too much. Parent turns their back. An hour later, that child is in the cupboard, taking that chance that they're going to do something they know is wrong, that they're not allowed to do at the risk of being caught. And that parent is real, he's right there and he's going to exact real punishment. That kid's going to lose out, spend time in the room, lose access to their technology, whatever it may be, and still that child is willing to take the chance.
Speaker 0:My friends, what does that tell us about us? Even if God was here in front of you telling you these things, as he was in past, we know that we would still continue to misbehave and do the things that we're not supposed to do. So why do the open miracles Instead make it a real test? My friends, we should all stand up to these tests and understand that if we make no effort, we gain nothing. All you need to do is give a reasonable effort, my friends, and the reward for your reasonable effort will be unreasonably spectacular. Have an amazing day, my friends.
