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 135 - The Divine GPS: When to Ask for Directions and When to Follow the Map
The path to true success lies at the intersection of faith and action - but knowing when to rely on divine guidance versus taking clear instructed steps makes all the difference.
As Rosh Hashanah approaches, there's no better time to explore the profound distinction between how we approach material concerns versus spiritual matters. In uncertain times when tomorrow feels increasingly unpredictable, having God as your rock provides an unshakable foundation that lifts the weight of anxiety from your shoulders.
The key insight revealed in this episode revolutionizes our understanding of divine reliance: while we should absolutely pray for guidance in career and financial decisions (who truly knows which industry will flourish or falter?), spiritual matters operate by different principles. God has already explicitly outlined what leads to life and what leads to spiritual death. The instructions exist - our responsibility is learning and implementing them rather than asking to be placed on a path already clearly marked.
But this raises a crucial question: if these divine instructions are so vital, why isn't the Torah more immediately accessible as a practical guidebook? The answer lies in understanding that beneath the historical narratives lies a sophisticated instruction manual for life that requires proper interpretation. The word "Torah" itself derives from the Hebrew for "instruction," yet extracting its wisdom for daily application - from how we conduct ourselves as spouses and parents to navigating major life transitions - requires engaging with both the written and oral traditions.
Ready to transform your approach to both material success and spiritual fulfillment? Join us tomorrow as we dive deeper into practical methods for extracting divine wisdom from ancient texts and applying it to modern life. Subscribe now and discover how these timeless teachings can revolutionize your daily decisions in ways you'll wish you'd discovered years ago.
Good morning, my dear friends, and welcome to the Trust Factor. This is the podcast that's going to guarantee your success when you implement its divine, age-old teachings. I had an amazing Shabbat. I hope you had an amazing Shabbat. Each one seems more and more impactful as we come up on Rosh Hashanah. We're coming up on our new year. This month, my friends, is an auspicious time for us to be able to grow and connect back to our Creator, and what you are doing by listening to this podcast is going to help you. It's going to make a very big difference in the way you approach Rosh Hashanah this year if you take it seriously, if you make a real effort.
Speaker 0:My friends, we don't know what tomorrow brings. We don't know how long we have on this planet. We really don't. I mean, if you look around us these days, it seems, from the fallout of COVID, that things are so much more unreliable and that traditional historical trends of health and survival seem to be going out the window. Although they're trying not to talk about it too much because it's not a popular subject, the point is we are living in different times, very uncertain times. We really don't know what tomorrow brings. So we need to take advantage of today. We need to maximize today and, at the end of the day, my friends, this is all for your benefit. It might seem arduous at times, it might seem difficult, but the reality is, when you've done it, when you've incorporated these teachings into your life, it does not take long for you to realize that you should have been doing these things a long time ago, that every day that you didn't do these things, that you didn't incorporate these principles and these ideas into your life, was a wasted opportunity, was a day that was literally wasted. My friends, the feeling that you get by having God at your back, by having him as your rock, to be able to rely on him in every single situation and to know that he has the ability and the desire to give you the best outcomes in all of these situations. He controls outcomes and we can rely on him to do the best for us. It takes so much stress and anxiety off of your shoulders. It is a huge, huge weight off of your shoulders Now.
Speaker 0:On Friday, we talked about the fact that we cannot rely on God to choose for us the right path, to put us in a situation where we are on the right path, so that we know that we're doing the right thing because he's already told us what to do. He's already explained it for us. That, my friends, is the key difference as we read forward over here. The book asks a very good question. It says up until now we've said that, with regards to material issues matters of this world, where you're going to work for a living and how much money you're going to make and where you should put your efforts that we need to investigate, but ultimately it comes from God. So really we need to pray to him to say please point me in the right direction. We need to pray to him to say please point me in the right direction, please put me in the path where I know that this is going to be my successful career. This is going to provide me all of my material needs to be able to provide for myself and my family. We have to rely on him when it comes to that. Otherwise, chavot HaLevavot would not have separated and distinguished between or given a different chapter or section of the book to differentiate between material matters and how we rely on God and spiritual matters and how we rely on God. He clearly separated them for a reason, and the reason that the book tells us that he's done this is because, when it comes to those material things, yes, we need to rely on him Because I don't know.
Speaker 0:I don't know if real estate's where I need to be. I have no idea what the real estate market is going to bear this coming year and in the future years. I really have no idea and I don't know if I really have a propensity to that industry. If sales in general is something that I should be doing, I don't know. I might have a feeling and inclination, but even if I'm a great salesperson who says that the real estate market is where I'm going to make the money needed to be able to sustain my lifestyle or if I want to get into trades, how do I know that that's for me? So, when it comes to the material world and material matters, yes, we need to not only rely on his outcomes, but we also have to pray to him to say God, please put me on the right path, point me in the right direction so that I'm not flip-flopping, I'm not changing industries and careers every few years trying to find my right place. Please put me on the right path from the get-go.
Speaker 0:That we need to pray for, but when it comes to the mitzvahs, we can't do that. When it comes to spirituality, it makes no sense. Why? Because he's already told us, he's already said this is the good and you should choose life and good. And these are the bad things and the death. And you should avoid doing the bad things and death. Those are bad. So do the good and avoid the bad. He tells us what to do and what not to do. It's throughout the Torah, my friends.
Speaker 0:So it doesn't make sense for us to come back after we've already been told what to do and what not to do and say well, god's going to put me on the right path. Please, god, put me in the situation where I will eventually do the right thing. No, we know what the right thing is and we know what the wrong thing is because it is outlined for us. So it is incumbent upon us to figure out exactly what they are by learning about them and then implementing them. But when we come to implementing them, like we've just said and the outcomes, then we need to turn to God and say God, I know what the right thing to do is over here. I know what I should be focusing on. Now I need your assistance to give me inspiration. I need your assistance to be able to help me to be successful in these areas, in my efforts and also in the outcomes, but to get on the right path. That's already in our control.
Speaker 0:Now, you may ask, and the logical question at this point is how do I know? I've never really sat and learned Torah. Or even if I did, even if I sat, even if I went to synagogue and I heard the rabbi give a nice little speech and I heard him read from the Torah, what did I gain from it? What did I garner from this entire experience of hearing the words of the five books of Moses? And the answer is you ready for this? Not much, not much at all. The entire five books of Moses are primarily probably 80% of them are nice stories about our history.
Speaker 0:Even though the Torah is not a history book, there are many stories of our history. Even though the Torah is not a history book. There are many stories of our history starting with the creation of the world, then going over to Noah and the flood, and then talking about how we were slaves in Egypt and how we left Egypt, and how we wandered through the desert and how the sea split for us Wonderful stories. Where in there do we figure out what we need to do and what we need to avoid? It's obviously not clear from the text Sometimes. Yes, there are certain parashahs, certain sections of the Torah that tell you certain things that you should try to do this and you should avoid doing that. But even when it says those things, it's not clear, it doesn't give us that guidance, you understand.
Speaker 0:Let me give you a classic example, the classic example when it comes to prayer in the Torah. When you read it from the five books, what does it say? It says that you should wrap them around your arm, your hand, and they should be tied between your eyes. What's it talking about? What's it talking about Today? We know that it's talking about tefillin, the phylacteries that we wrap around our arm and we put on our head when we pray in the morning, but we didn't know that from reading the text. Nobody can garner that from reading the text.
Speaker 0:So how do you figure it out? In order to understand that, you need to investigate. That's where we go to what's called the Talmud, the oral law. To investigate. That's where we go to what's called the Talmud, the oral law, or you go to a rabbi, somebody who is educated, somebody who knows these things, who've committed their lives to learning it and to teaching it, and rely on them to be able to pass you the tradition and to teach you how to learn about it. That's what's required by us.
Speaker 0:So, while the Torah, most of you may not realize this, but the root word of Torah is Hora'ah. A Hora'ah for you who don't speak Hebrew is an instruction. So when we have a Torah which is actually referred to as Torah Tchaim, what that means it's instructions for life. Our Torah is an instruction manual. It was given to us in order to know how to live a proper life, how to seek pleasure and avoid pain, the right type of pleasure. That's what it is there for. But again, when you read it for the first time, it might be hard for you to sink your teeth into and to take away the real lessons of the day-to-day.
Speaker 0:How do I conduct myself in the morning when I wake up? How do I conduct myself in the morning when I wake up? How do I conduct myself throughout the day at my place of employment? How do I conduct myself with my family, as a spouse, as a parent as a child. How do I conduct myself in these relationships? What do I do at these monumental times in my life, these pivotal times in our lives that we have when we have children, or when people come into the world and when they leave the world, and when we have bar mitzvahs, when we get married, when all these different things happen in our lives, how do we conduct ourselves? Do we rely on secular society to tell us where we've already established that they do not have our best interests in mind and that what they tell us is usually 180 degrees opposite of what's good for us? Do we still continue to rely on them in these situations? The answer is obviously no. Tomorrow, my friends, I'm going to give you the meat and potatoes about how it is that we use the text in the Torah to figure out exactly what we need to do. Have an amazing day, my friends.
