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 172 - How Personal Change Inspires Communities And Brings Lasting Peace
Feeling squeezed by a world that won’t stop shouting? We offer a different pace and a deeper compass: learn what truly matters, choose it in your heart, act with intention, and trust the outcome to Hashem. Across this conversation, we move from noise to nuance—how to protect your attention, strengthen your home life, and build community through steady, hidden service that doesn’t need a spotlight to shine.
We dig into a practical structure for spiritual growth: first learn the command, then decide, then act. That last step often gets hijacked by anxiety about results, so we reframe success as faithful effort paired with prayer. You’ll hear how viewing yourself and others as emissaries of something higher transforms everyday help into a sacred exchange. When you ask, you release control; when you give, you step up with gratitude, not ego. We also share why forgiveness is less about absolving someone else and more about freeing your own mind from carrying their weight.
We announce our first guest, Rabbi Hildesheim, and set the stage for weekly conversations that bring wisdom into daily routines. Along the way, we question the scoreboard mindset around reward and talk about why true reward is gift, not wage—and how that frees us to do good for the right reasons. If you’re ready to trade outrage for order, and chaos for calm practice, this one will meet you where you live and nudge you one step further.
Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a calm path forward, and leave a review with one choice you’re committing to this week.
Until next time, have a spectacular day!
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Trust Factor, the podcast that guarantees your success when you implement its divine age old teachings. I hope you're all doing well. I know this world seems to be a crazy place sometimes. We're living in unbelievably crazy times. There's just so much information coming at us from all directions, and it's so easy to believe the narrative. It's so easy to listen to what the powers that be in the secular world want us to think and hear and believe. My friends, I hope this is your safe space. I know this generation identifies with that term. We never had it growing up. I can understand it, especially in the environment that we're living in today. It's almost like we need a safe space from those people who've created the concept of a safe space. But if we do need one, I hope this is yours where you can come in and get some just good information that makes you feel good, that gives you a real sense of satisfaction because ninety nine percent of the stuff that is out there in the world in terms of the things that are trying to influence us are just useless at best, corrupt and designed to make us fail at worst, and they're really good at doing it, my friend. So don't listen. Do your best to shut out the noise. Focus on yourself and your family and your loved ones and your community and build. The only way to change the craziness that's in this world is to start with yourself. Once you've made that change and impacted a real positive change in your life, others will follow. That's how it works. You cannot force adults to do things, to change their ways by insisting on it or offering them things. If they want to, they will. And oftentimes the best way to get them to change their ways is to be that example of what they could be. And when they see you thriving and enjoying and happy and content, then they will wonder what you're on. And when they figure out that you're on Torah, they'll jump on that bandwagon. You've all heard by now that this coming Friday, God willing, if everything aligns, Rabbi Hildesheim is going to be our first guest. Rabbi Chaim, as he's affectionately known in our community, is a wonderful human being who I've had the privilege of knowing for almost 20 years, and he's confirmed that he's going to be our first speaker this coming Friday. Now the intention is to do them on a weekly basis. Obviously, that means I need to have people lined up. So I've got a short list of people that I know, and that list is growing. If you have speakers that you're familiar with that you think might want to be on this podcast, let me know, and I'd be happy to reach out to them. So we're looking forward to Friday, my friends. Right now we're summarizing chapter four with some really old content that even is like it's hard for me to remember some of these things because it was so long ago that we talked about them. That's how long this chapter was. But let's finish them off. Right now we're we're into the second half of the third category. There are seven of them. The second half of the third one is when asking someone for help, one should recognize that help comes from Hashem and his request will be fulfilled if God desires that the person who was asked should be his emissary for this matter. Remember, we said you can go to a grocery store and ask a six foot five individual to help get you something from the top shelf. Just because he can reach it doesn't mean he will. That person has to be your emissary. I mean, that's obviously a basic example, but the point is if you need assistance and you ask of somebody, at the end of the day, do you recognize who's behind the result? That person has to be your emissary, has to be the right person to fulfill your need. And God has to determine that. In which case, he doesn't need to be six five. If you need something from the top shelf, it can be the smallest guy in the store that'll figure out a way to get it for you. Recognize that everything comes from Hashem. Similarly, when helping others in need, when you're on the opposite side of that transaction, one should be thankful that Hashem chose him as his emissary to deliver the aid, not feel like, oh no, what are people asking me? If I got too much to do, I'm too busy making all kinds of excuses and leaving people in their time of need. Recognize that Hashem chose you to assist somebody in their time of need. Step up and do your best. When faced with adversaries, one should rely on God's protection, tolerate their insults, and pray that Hashem forgive his sins that cause the people to turn against him. Just imagine a world where instead of fighting back, where instead of getting mad, where instead of getting depressed when somebody comes at us, that we actually recognize that it comes from Hashem. We don't even wait for that person to ask for forgiveness. We automatically forgive them. That whole conversation we could talk about on itself, the fact that when you forgive an individual, when you forgive anybody, you're not mostly forgiving them for them. The forgiveness is for yourself, because if you don't forgive them, that means you're carrying around a very heavy weight. That individual is occupying real estate in your mind. Whenever their name comes up, you get irritable. That's not a healthy thing for you. Never mind the other individual. It's you that we're primarily caring for here because whether or not the individual wants forgiveness from you, you should be able to give it for your own peace of mind and benefit. Also, to be able to recognize that it comes from Hashem. That helps you to accept it with love and not to fight back and not to react and not to want to inflict harm. On to number four, fulfilling personal mitzvahs. There are three components to fulfilling a mitzvah, to doing one of Shem's commandments. Choosing in one's heart to do what's right is number one. So you have to make that decision, which means you have to be aware that it exists, which means you have to learn about it. If you don't know what the commandment is, the first step is to learn. That's why we all have an obligation to learn every single day. Once you've learned, then you make a decision in your heart. You say, I'm going to take on X commandment. I'm going to commit to giving 10% to charity. I'm going to commit to praying at least one time a day if you haven't prayed if you're not praying three times a day. I commit to being more sensitive to my relationship with my parents as a requirement for me to honor them. Whatever it is, there are so many mitzvahs for you to be able to grab onto. But once you've made that decision, that's step one. Now step two is to resolve to act on that choice. So I've made the choice in my mind. Now I'm going to commit to how I'm going to do it. And then I'm going to carry it out. I'm going to put one foot in front of the other and I'm going to take action. Without action, my friends, inspiration is completely useless. The first two parts are completely up to the person himself. You and I are only in control of deciding in our heart through our learning what we want to do to improve our character and our lives. Then you and I are responsible for resolving to say, I'm going to do it, and here's how I'm going to do it by putting a plan together. But the last part of carrying out the deed, we said, Lo Alecham el Khaligmore many times, it is not your obligation to finish the job. That is in his hands. Whether it finishes or not, whether it finishes the way you wanted it or not, is out of your hands. That is in God's hands. Remember that. When you are okay with that and you accept it with love, then there is no feeling of anger or animosity, being upset and anxious and depressed that things didn't work out the way you wanted to. It says it is wrong to rely on Hashem to make one decide to do good. For the third part, one needs Hashem's assistance. One makes his best effort and relies on God to help him carry it out. One should also pray for his assistance and his guidance in doing so correctly. So while we're not responsible for the outcome, we have to recognize it's in God's hands and pray to him and ask him for assistance. Hashem, it should work out perfectly. What that does is two things. Number one, it shows Hashem what's in your heart, how you really feel that you know who's in charge, which is number one priority, right? Number one incentive for God to say, okay, you get it, so therefore here you go. Right. And number two is it reminds you. You're reminding yourself who's in charge. When you're asking from your creator, which is, by the way, one of the reasons why we pray every day, is to remind ourselves who we're asking from, who runs the show. Number five, fulfilling interpersonal mitzvahs. As with personal mitzvahs, one must choose on his own to do mitzvot that involve helping others and rely on God to help him carry them out properly. Remember, we said that is the trick to living a life of eternity, is to be able to think outside of yourself. That's the secret sauce. However, one must do them with intent, for God's sake, and not to gain honor or recognition. And one should try his best to keep this deeds secret. We just finished talking about that. Keep them secret for yourself because that's how you build your next world. Is it about your ego? Is it about you? Or is it about doing the right thing? Doing it for the right purpose. Number six, reward for mitzvahs. A person cannot earn reward since he owes Hashem more than he can ever hope to repay. And remember, we said we are always in a deficit. The point of doing the commandments is not to catch up to God, to say to him, Here's your repayment. Number one, we can never repay him for any of the things that he does for us because of the greatness of what he does versus the limitations of the things that we can do in a limited world. But secondly, he's God. And I've got news for you. God, by definition, is complete. So there is nothing that we can do to complete him. So that's the point. You're doing them for yourself. The mitzvot are making your life better, and as a result, making your families and your communities' lives better. That's why you're doing this. To change the world, to take it back to the way that it was before the original sin. The reward is essentially a gift from Hashem. This is one of the reasons why the reward of the world to come is not described in the Torah. Thus, one should do mitzvahs with trust that Hashem bestows reward for them, but not with the attitude that he will be owed a reward. Bottom line, you're doing them for the right reason. You're doing them because God told you to do them, and then you're going to benefit in this world and for the ones that you do quietly and anonymously, and in your heart you build your next world. We're going to finish the last one tomorrow to summarize, and then we are into chapter five. Have an amazing day, my friends. Looking forward to Friday.
