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 186 - How Much Is Enough When Tomorrow Isn’t Promised
What if the shelf you keep restocking is really feeding your fear, not your future? We dive into the uncomfortable space between prudent planning and quiet hoarding, where anxiety disguises itself as responsibility. The conversation begins with a challenging lens on trust in God: when something is withheld or lost, the trusting heart doesn’t erupt in blame or panic. That ideal collides with modern conditioning that tells us worth equals accumulation, and that more assets automatically mean more safety.
We unpack a practical way to define “enough” without drifting into endless targets. Start by naming your real annual needs, obligations to children, and the lifestyle you actually live. If your work is seasonal, plan accordingly; if your income is steady, keep efforts steady. The danger arrives when you decide you must fund life to a fixed, distant age and then chase a moving number forever. That plan often morphs into hoarding, turning a home into a bunker and the mind into a calculator of worst-case scenarios. Keeping supplies for today, tomorrow, and the week can be sensible; stacking years of provisions often reveals a deeper need to control outcomes.
A powerful story of the Toshe Rebbe brings these ideas to life. Faced with a crisis on Monday and a deadline on Wednesday, he released funds immediately, trusting that two days was enough time for God to open a path. It wasn’t recklessness; it was alignment with purpose and timing. Doing the right thing doesn’t guarantee an easy road—you may have to ask for extensions and work harder after the act of courage. But that is where trust matures: disciplined effort without the demand to control the result.
We close by previewing our upcoming conversation with Rabbi Elisha Mandel, whose decades serving families offer grounded wisdom on faith, responsibility, and daily bread. If you’ve wrestled with how much to save, when to give, and how to quiet the noise of “what if,” this session offers a clear framework, honest stories, and practical next steps. Subscribe, share with a friend who overplans, and leave a review with your definition of “enough”—where do you draw the line?
Until next time, have a spectacular day!
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the Trost Factor, the podcast that guarantees your success when you implement its divine age old teachings. We got a lot to talk about, lots to cover off. I just want to remind everybody that tomorrow, Friday, is going to be the third of our interview series with Rabbi Alicia Mandel. So make sure not to miss that. It's going to be amazing. Rabbi Mandel deals with a lot of families. He's been dealing with families for many, many years. Since he's a child, he's dealing with helping people come closer to Judaism in all areas of their lives. So if you're interested in learning from somebody with that kind of experience, which I would strongly suggest we all should, make sure to tune in tomorrow. Let's discuss where we're at. Yesterday we said the big, big difference between somebody who trusts in God and somebody who doesn't is that number one, when something is withheld from them, they don't get upset. And number two, when they lose something that they already have, they don't get upset. Very, very easy to say, very difficult to do, my friends. This is, in my opinion, the seventh difference is easily, easily one of the most difficult and distinct differences that are challenging for us to achieve in our relationship with our Creator. It's not easy to do, it's very, very difficult because we work so hard and we're conditioned to think that the more we have, the better we are, the stronger we are, the more important we are, the more honored we should be. And so we are very careful not to part with the things that we have, namely our material possessions. That's a very big challenge. And also we desire so much of it because we're told that that's going to be the defining thing that makes us successful is acquisition of material wealth. So when we don't get it, we need to blame somebody, and that blame usually falls square on God's shoulders, not realizing that it is for the best that we don't have it. It says over here that he does not hoard what is currently available, nor does he worry about anything more than today's provisions. Big, big statement. What do you mean? I'm not supposed to save for tomorrow. I've got children, I'm gonna have to marry them off, right? I need to save for a rainy day. Who knows? I need to save for retirement. So what do you mean? And the answer to this is a long-winded answer. But generally speaking, you have to understand this doesn't mean that you eat for today and you don't worry at all about tomorrow. It means that there is a limitation once you know what it is that you need on an annual basis, once you've established what you need when with regards to supporting your children, the lifestyle that you live in in this generation, you understand what that lifestyle demands of you. It's necessary that you save for certain things. Those things are acceptable. The question becomes at one point is it excess? At one point is it too much? And that I think is an individual answer for each and every one of us that depends on what your life looks like, on who you are responsible for and who is responsible for you. There are so many variables that go into how much of an effort is acceptable, how much is not enough, and how much is too much. I'm suggesting over here, and I think what the book is telling us is that we all need to know what a reasonable expectation is of what we need in order to plan for today and for our immediate future. Beyond that, we don't know. Nobody knows what awaits us. So we have to make reasonable efforts in those areas. It says over here, this is because he does not concern himself with what will be tomorrow, since he does not know when his end will come. In other words, really what he's saying here is you're not thinking, okay, I'm going to live until 95. And so I need to plan to 95. Good luck. Good luck, because then what you're going to end up doing is you're going to end up hoarding. You're never going to have enough material assets because you're trying to hit that target. Who says that you're going to live to 95? Who says that you have to save for it, even if you are going to live to 95? Who says money comes and money goes? Hashem does not need specific opportunities to give you money for you to do X, Y, or Z in order for him to give you money. It doesn't have to happen that way. There are a million different ways for him to give you your daily bread. Says he does not make efforts for the next day's sustenance. This presumes that one's work is the day-to-day type. That's what he's referring to over here. But a person whose occupation is seasonal, like farmers and that type of thing, you need to plan. So the idea here is it's individual. You need to plan, you need to know. But if your job is consistent and you know what you need to do in order to earn a living, you continue to do what it is that you need to do, that's it. So plan years ahead and way out. And for the the thing that may never happen, you know, they're the go into some people's basements and you open up their cellar, they've got provisions set away and dried up food that's going to last them for years in case of a nuclear fallout. That, my friends, is the epitome of an individual who does not have trust in Hashem. If you're hoarding food, if you go down to your storage room and it's bursting with food that you know is going to last a very, very long time and you've acquired it, knowing that it's going to be for emergency cases, then that is a really strong indication that your head is in the wrong place to have for today, for tomorrow, for this week, for next week, perfectly reasonable. Beyond that, you're starting to show very clearly that you are lacking trust in your creator, that you think that you are going to determine how long you live based on how much food you're willing to store for an emergency situation. That's not how somebody with trust in God lives in this world. I want to give you an amazing example over here. It's a little story that it gives over from the Tosha Rebbe, who gives a story about the difference between somebody who plans and somebody who doesn't plan with regards to saving money or hoarding things. It says that this Rebbe, Rabbi Meshulam Faish Loe, was the Tosha Rebbe, was known far and wide for his generous and caring heart. Although he bore the financial burden of his community and its yeshiva, he mortgaged their buildings to raise money for the needy. He never could consider saving money for a future need when there was a mitzvah to which it could be applied immediately. In other words, he's saving money for a building or to help the needy people. He knows that there are going to be needy people coming to him in the future. He can't fathom saving it today for a needy person that will come in the future. In one typical incident, the Rebbe was informed that a significant sum was needed by the following Wednesday to avoid foreclosure. On a Sunday right before, a Jew came to him with an alarming tale about a debt to members of organized crime that he needed to repay by the next day. The Rebbe handed him a huge amount of money. Communal leaders who had been working around the clock to save the building were disturbed that the Rebbe could give away so much money at this time. He incredulously replied to them, I don't understand. He needs the money on Monday. And we don't need the money until Wednesday. In two days, Hashem can do anything. You understand guys? Now, again, like I said in the beginning, theoretically, okay, no problem. Practically, very, very big challenge. I've saved a huge sum of money for a future date, Wednesday. Somebody comes to me on Sunday and says, I need it tomorrow. And now you say it's okay. It took me six months to be able to save up all this money. But you need it on Monday, and I only really need it on Wednesday. That means I have two more days to save up that money again. But what do you mean? It took you six months. It doesn't matter. It does not matter. I'm doing the right thing with it. This individual came to me in a time of need. I have this money now, and the reason I have this money now is because God made sure that I have this money now. It could have taken me until the Tuesday before to raise that money, but it didn't. I had it on Sunday when this individual came to me. I didn't have to have it on that Sunday, but Hashem made it so that I had that money readily available to give. And now I'm faced with the test. Somebody's coming to me and saying, I need that money tomorrow. And I know I have it till Wednesday. Can you imagine the strength, the trust that it takes to part with that money to help an individual when you know that on Wednesday you need that money, it's earmarked for something else? That, my friends, is the pinnacle, in my opinion. It is the height of trust in your creator to know. And we're not talking about small sums here. We're talking about sizable sums that are enough to be able for a bank to come and foreclose on your home. Okay? We're not talking about a meager sum here. We're talking about a huge impact potentially on you and your entire family, and you're able to rise above that and recognize where the money comes from. That is a shining example. It's not easy. And it's not easy even when you've done it. It's not like suddenly you give it because you know it's the right thing to do. You've done the analysis and you give it, and then you think it suddenly gets easier. Oh, the money's just gonna pour in and everything's no. You may even have to push off that Wednesday date. You may even need to go and grovel at the feet of the bank for a little bit of an extension. You may need to do certain things to be able to meet that additional debt that you had. Just because you did the right thing with it now doesn't mean it's going to be easy in the future. On the contrary, the test, the real test, is that when you do what's right with it today, that the test of recovering the money to be able to meet your future debt becomes that much harder. And then when you actually get it, it is that much sweeter. That wraps it up for today, my friends. We are going to be talking to Rabbi Mandel, Alicia Mandel from the Thornhillwood Schule tomorrow. Please tune in. You're not going to want to miss it. Have an amazing day.
