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 165 - Becoming God’s treasurer in a world drunk on wealth
The world keeps telling us there’s a magic number where life finally feels whole—and yet the people who hit it often feel the emptiest. We take you inside a candid look at money, status, and the quiet cost of chasing the next win, then lay out a grounded way to reclaim desire without abandoning real life. Along the way, we highlight a rare group of spiritual leaders whose joy comes from Torah and mitzvot, and we translate their example into steps regular people can actually take.
We talk through the “toes” model—how most of us live with nine toes in the material and one in the spiritual—and how to shift that balance with study, intention, and consistent action. You’ll hear why more assets often mean more worries, how the hype machine sells the illusion of happiness through fame and consumption, and what changes when you treat your bank account as entrusted capital rather than identity. We share stories, examples, and a pragmatic lens on spiritual growth that respects work, family, and modern pressures.
If you’ve ever wondered why the vacation glow fades so fast, why promotions feel smaller than the anticipation, or how to use money without becoming used by it, this conversation offers a clear path. Expect ideas you can try this week: a fixed giving practice, bite-size learning, and choices that turn wealth into impact. Subscribe, share this episode with someone wrestling with the wealth myth, and leave a review with the one practice you’ll start today.
Until next time, have a spectacular day!
Good morning everybody and welcome to the Trust Factor, the podcast that guarantees your success when you implement its divine age old teachings. Yesterday we talked about something that, like I said, could bring up controversy or contention amongst a lot of people, especially in today's age of materialism. We are living in a day and time, my friends, where there is so much wealth that has been created in society that is unprecedented. The amount of money that has been generated in the world since just the technological boom in the two thousands has been astronomical. And you think about how much money some of these people at the very top of the food chain are earning. Just look at professional sports, soccer, for example. Squad of soccer players are earning combined hundreds of millions of dollars, just one team. It's unbelievable how much money is in the world. And now to expect that somehow we are going to detach from the material realm and want to connect back exclusively to God, this concept, my friends, that is being brought by Kovotalavot applies to a very select group of people. Remember I said there are people in this world that are generally the leaders of our generation, the spiritual leaders of our generation. They have taken on a role, a responsibility for all of us and our spirituality. And they are the type of people who take pleasure, the same pleasure that we take from the material world, from our experiences in this world, the taste of spectacular fine food, the joy of bringing life into the world, the joy of closing a very, very big, probably your biggest business deal, the joy of being promoted to a very important position, the joy of seeing your children graduate, the joy of seeing them get married and having their own children, all these spectacular joys that we can get or can appreciate the joy that can be taken from this world, but it does not motivate them. They are motivated purely by the joy and reveling in God's Torah, doing his mitzvahs, learning how this world operates so that they can advise and guide others on how to conduct themselves in godliness. You understand? So we, though he is suggesting that this applies to humanity, it only applies to a small section of humanity who can hack this. Most of us cannot, because we need to get those pleasures. Life is difficult for us. We don't yet have the clarity that these people have of how God runs this world, and we're certainly not nearly as close to God as these people are. They have worked on themselves their entire lives and they've reached a level of Dvaikut that we talked about the other day, of being glued to God in a way that most of us can only fathom. And so because we lack that connection to that extent, we still need the pleasures, the day-to-day small pleasures that we get out of eating good food, out of our relationships with our spouses and our children and the interactions, with seeing the things that happen in this world, the physicality with the earning of additional monies, the pleasures that come with those things, a vacation, a holiday, away with your family at an all-inclusive resort. These people don't even think, they don't consider them, they are a waste of time. They're actually repulsed by them, not just not interested in them, because the only thing that drives them is connecting further back to their creator. They've developed a love for the creator through studying him day and night, their entire lives, studying the Torah on a level that most of us can only dream of. Because they've done that, they've established a love and a relationship with the creator that all they want is the metaphysical, all they want is the spiritual and emotional growth. The material means nothing to them. For us, it's a different approach. So now we have to understand how do you and I manage being in the material world and having to develop that same sensitivity that these leaders of the generation have, although not to that level. If we can get to that level, all the better for us. But most of us will not get there. That's why the Gdoleador, the leaders of the generation, are very few in number. But doesn't mean we shouldn't strive. So what does that mean? That means that somebody like us, as soon as we start learning Torah, as soon as we start getting into it, we still have most of our feet or ten toes. We've got nine toes in the physical world, and we've got one in the spiritual world. And the idea is to be able to move over more of those toes into the spiritual world, leaving fewer in the material world. How do you do that? You do that by learning his Torah. You do that by learning what's important to him as the creator of the world. He knows what we should be focusing on and what we shouldn't be focusing on. And the reality is we've said there are two of the biggest inclinations in the world. One of them is money, which equals materialism, and the other is relations, which can also be acquired through materialism, although not the type of relationships that we necessarily want that are really meaningful. And so that's why as humans we are constantly chasing power through money, through wealth, through acquisitions. We're also being convinced by the masses, by the media, by the corporations and governments that that is the holy grail. That once you've achieved X number of dollars, that's when happiness sets in. Once you've achieved X amount of fame, that's when you're on top of the world. And one only needs to open your eyes to realize that it is not true, it's a fallacy. Not only do we see that by the celebrities of the world, so many of them, their lives are in shambles behind the camera. When they're not in front of the camera, everything is upside down. They are all divorced multiple times, the vast majority. There's always exceptions to the rule. But generally speaking, most of them have never been married or have been married umpteen times, relationships that have always ended up on the headlines or on public television for everybody to see, their dirty laundry getting aired. Some of them are so wealthy and so powerful and so famous that they can't wait to check out of this world early that they take their own lives. God forbid, we've seen that time and time again. It's so disheartening to watch, but wait a second, they've made it. They've got hundreds of millions of dollars, and they've got all the fame and the notoriety one could ever imagine. Those are supposed to be the pinnacle. Those are supposed to put them at the top of the food chain and make them the happiest people in the world. Clearly, that's not true. We see that very, very clearly when we look at people who have made it in life financially. There are always exceptions to the rule. I can show you many people who've been fortunate to be able to make a lot of money, but have also remained grounded in their Torah. And it is specifically because of the Torah that they've learned that's allowed them to be able to maintain their real happiness and not the money itself. In fact, it is the use of the money for mitzvahs. It is the use of the money to be able to help the people who are less fortunate that gives them that help, that gives them that assistance to maintain happiness, real true lasting happiness. It says, Marbenechim, Marbede Agot. The more money you have, the more business ventures you have, the more money you have, the more dealings you have generally, investments, portfolios, companies that you've purchased, companies that you've started with new partners, because you've got all of this access to money, and now you need to be able to make sure that your money is working for you. That question is why? Is it so that you can buy more and acquire more for yourself to be able to build your status in this world? Or is it because you want to be God's treasurer? You want to be his secretary, his financial secretary to be able to go out and disperse his funds to the needy. If that's why you're doing it, then you're living a godly life. And your pleasure does not come from the money. In fact, the problems come from the money. Marbenechasim, Mar Bedagot, you increase your business dealings and your wealth, you increase your worries, which anybody can tell you is true. Anybody who's ever earned any sizable fortune will tell you that it just gets more and more difficult because now you've got two houses and three houses and five houses and cars and people who work for you. And each one of those buildings and structures have all kinds of infrastructure in it that is needs to be maintained and that falls apart and that malfunctions and needs to be repaired. And it's nothing but challenges and problems. You have board meetings with every single one of the companies that you own. You're always on the telephone, conference calls, patching in people, having conversations, high-level, low-level conversations, meeting with business partners, it does not end. Your personal and professional life will tarry you the more money you have. So the pleasure doesn't come from the money. The pleasure comes from what you do with the money. Now, those who take the money and invest it back into the material world and fill their bellies and are always flying around the world and trying to see every corner of the world and are so busy filling their own souls, that temporary happiness is just that. It's temporary. It is fleeting. It lasts a few minutes, a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, a few months, and it's gone. Those who take their money and invest it so that they can they can provide, they can be godlike in providing for those who don't have, in making this world a better place, in enabling the spreading of these ideas to people who are suffering because they don't have access to this wisdom. Those people see the fruits of their labor, they see the fruits of their investment, and that's what keeps them going. That happiness that they attain through doing the right thing with their material wealth is what gives them constant and eternal reward and pleasure that can never be found in the material world. So the trick is, my friends, that when we make our money, you don't have to be a millionaire to do this. The idea is what are you doing with your money? What are you doing with your earnings? Where is that money being spent? How much is it being invested into this world? And how much of it is being invested into the next? That wraps it up for today, my friends. We'll chat again tomorrow. Have an amazing day.
