Episode 218 - When Leaders Fail, Community Must Unite

When official reassurances ring hollow, what does real safety look like? We open with stark honesty about public trust, failed leadership, and the narrative sleight of hand that turns victims into suspects.  Then we choose a different path: practical self-governance, cleaner language, and community courage that refuses to hide in the face of a Chanukah massacre in Australia. 

The turning point is a small moment with big ripples. After morning prayers, a single thought becomes action—flags in hand, friends at a corner, and a presence that grows into one of Toronto’s longest-running pro‑Israel rallies. We explore how movements start without permission, why visible solidarity steadies a city and builds real-world security. Unity is not a slogan. It is systems of trust that multiply strength and blunt harm.

We break down the rhetoric that normalizes danger—leading questions, coy insinuations, and performative “curiosity”—and give tools to speak with integrity under pressure. We return to first principles: show up, stand together, and keep the focus on truth over spin. The image that stays is simple: one pencil breaks; a bundle holds. If fear narrows your world, widen it through presence and partnership. If you feel powerless, take the smallest responsible step and invite two others to join you. That’s how courage compounds.

If this conversation moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs steadiness right now, and leave a review with one takeaway that you plan to act on this week. Your voice helps more people find practical hope.

Chapters

• 0:17 Opening And Somber Context
• 0:33 Safety Myths And Failed Leadership
• 2:00 Media Spin And Victim Inversion
• 3:53 Personal Security And Self-Governance
• 6:10 Pivot To Community Resilience
• 6:19 The Giddy Mammon Spark
• 8:01 Action Over Fear And Its Impact
• 8:28 Debate On Baseless Hatred
• 9:45 Unity As Spiritual Catalyst
• 11:38 The Unbreakable Bundle Parable
• 12:33 Closing And Calls To Action

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:17

Hello and welcome to the Trust Factor Podcast, the only podcast that guarantees your success when you implement its divine age old teachings. While I would normally start off by wishing you a good week, a Shavuotov, it's very difficult to do. For obvious reasons. If you're alive today, you recognize that the Jew hatred continues, unabated, and in the places where a lot of people think they are safe, and they are not. It's happened today in Australia. It was a ticking time bomb, and it's not going to be the last time, my friends. It doesn't matter where you live these days, as long as you're outside of Israel, and unfortunately today even in Israel, but certainly the impression, at least outside of Israel, is that these leaders want us to think that we are safe and that they care about us, and that they are doing their utmost to ensure our security. In Israel, we know what the fear is. We know what the risk is because we know who our neighbors are, and we live that way. That's why we have that country, because that country is a safe haven where we don't mix messages. We know who our neighbors are and how they feel about us. Outside of Israel, we simply don't know that. And while I never meant this to be a political podcast, sometimes there's simply no choice. They leave us with no choice. The governments of free Western democracies, I say that with a lot of air quotes, are the culprits here. Make no mistake, it's not just the individuals who are pulling the triggers. It is failed leadership who've brought them into the country, who protect them and who promote their ideology. Mark my words, by the end of the day, you will hear a lot of these leaders putting out statements, condemning not just the attacks, but also the potential for Islamophobia that will come out of the ashes of this. They're not going to attribute all of the attention to the facts on the ground, which is that on the first day of Hanukkah at a children's party on a beach where they were doing things to commemorate a beautiful holiday again at a time when Jews were persecuted and slaughtered for their faith, these people came out and did it in the open on that day, killing rabbis, killing all kinds of people indiscriminately, not focusing in any one area, except for the fact that they were focusing on the Hanukkah Party. Anybody who was at that Hanukkah party was fair game. Guys, the message here is this and I've been saying it throughout the entire podcast. These government leaders, and again, with their quotes, do not care about us. They don't. I hate to say it, I'm not the bearer of bad news. I am the voice of reason in your head, and you know that. Sometimes it's difficult to accept it. But at times like these, it's glaringly obvious. These are the people who've brought them in and they protect them, they give them police escorts on the street, they allow them to protest on the streets, blocking traffic without permits. They allow them to do all of these things to threaten good law abiding citizens, to threaten to destroy people in public, and they don't hold them accountable. Instead, they turn the focus on Islamophobia. They make the aggressors the victims, and they make good people like you and I think twice or a hundred times before we speak out. Guys, my message is govern yourselves accordingly. Know that these governments don't have your best interests in mind. Know that there is an ugly agenda lurking in the background, that leaders like Albanese in Australia and Starmer in the UK and Macron in France and Trudeau and Carney in Canada, and all of these leaders are in it together. They are all part of organizations such as the World Economic Forum and others like it, who are trying to operate as a shadow government in the background. Again, I hate to make this political, but that's what's going on. And if you haven't had eyes to see it up until now, my friends, it's time to wake up. That time is past. My message is govern yourselves as though you are the only governing body. If you're going to a Hanukkah party, don't think that we have nothing to worry about. Don't forget about the element of safety. And remember that we are in very difficult times where governments are propagating these messages of hate and division, and they're trying, just like a lot of these podcasters, you know, you look at somebody like Candace Owens, these people have become masters of wordsmithing, of spin. And what they will do is they will make statements or they will ask questions as though they are just inquiring. They are just inquisitive. But in the question you will find the statements. In the statements you will find the accusations. They are subtle and they are lurking in the background, but people hear them and people act on them. So my message is guard and govern yourselves accordingly. We can no longer afford to rely on corrupt government officials to provide us with any level of security or safety in our homes or on the streets. Bottom line, if you haven't seen what I'm talking about, turn on the news and you will find at least a dozen Jews killed at a Khanukkah party at Bondi Beach in Australia on the first day of Khanukkah celebrating. I'm gonna put a pin in it over there, my friends. I don't want to keep going with it. There are a lot of people who are gonna beat this thing to death, and I will let those people who deal with this stuff on a daily basis deal with it. I, on the other hand, want to talk about the amazing interview that brought Jews together after October the 7th. We talked to Giddy Mammon last week, and he talked about what it took for him to get out and bring some friends and start this rally, what ended up being, I believe, the longest running pro-Israel rally since October the 7th, and he brought together and unified so many of Toronto's Jewish community at a time when we needed the most. Two things I want to discuss. Number one, my favorite part of that interview, what got me excited and what I haven't stopped thinking about, and what also piqued the interest, let's say, of one of my avid listeners. A listener reached out to me with a quote unquote concern, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it, and I think the two are very much connected, and maybe we'll tie it into what's going on in the craziness of the world today. My favorite part of the podcast interview on Friday was when Giddy said that the inspiration to start this pro Israel rally popped into his head while he was finishing prayers, while he was taking off his Tfillin and synagogue and putting it away. Something entered into his mind to say, I need to do something. We are in trouble. Our leaders are telling us to run and hide, and that's not the right thing to do. I know it in my bones, and something has to happen, and like a lightning bolt, it enters into his mind to take some friends and head over to Bathurston Shepherd with some Canadian and Israeli flags and start waving them. That was amazing for me, because that was for me an indication of how this whole thing got off the ground. This whole idea of it's not on you to finish the job, it's just on you to start it. He could have been overwhelmed with the idea, he could have been scared into submission, he could have been running for the hills or for the basements like our leaders were telling us to do, but instead he stepped up and he did the right thing, and he went against our nature, which is generally to run and hide for safety. And as a result of that, God opened up the door and it became a massive, record breaking rally. Now, that was my favorite part. One of my listeners sent me a message concerned, and I understood it immediately. His concern was when Gideon mentioned that he didn't believe growing up when the rabbis told him that the reason we lost the temple, the Betamidash, was because of this thing called Sinathinam, baseless hatred amongst Jews, that we hated each other for no reason. In other words, we were divided, we were at odds with each other and at a record pace. And the only way God could respond to that was to take away our most precious, prized possession, that being the temple. He didn't like that answer. He he thought very pragmatically, like many of us do. What are you talking about? What's it got to do with baseless hatred that happens all the time? This has to do with a conquering superpower, the Romans, or whoever all these dynasties were that just destroyed everything we ever built. Here was no different. They came in with a superpower and an amazing force, and they encircled the building and they set fire to it and they attacked and they destroyed it. Very simple. That's why, because we had people who hated us and they came in and destroyed it. He didn't believe our sages. He didn't like the answer that they gave about baseless hatred. And my listener took exception to that, and I understood that. But for me, I took it a different way. I understood it the exact opposite. Here's my take on it, guys. There is a reason why Giddy Mammon was the one who had the lightning bolt in his head to go out and start this rally. That reason was because the creator, his father in heaven, who loves him enormously and wants to see him become the best version that he can become of himself in this world, put it into his head right after the Davening, right after the prayers. No coincidences, my friends, that as soon as he unraped his fillin' he got the message and then he acted on it. The same God that loves him so much saw that he was weak potentially in a certain area of his life in his spiritual growth where he was questioning the wisdom of our sages in certain areas, specifically when it comes to the power of Jewish unity or disunity, God forbid. And God chose him specifically to go out and get this rally started. It could have been anybody else, but it wasn't. It had to be him because God loves him so much. And God allowed him to go out and be the impetus that got this thing started. And then Gideon, his own words, tells us how it was very much this rally that opened his eyes to the reality of what our sages have been teaching for generations. How Jewish unity is what will bring this world to a utopia, and how the opposite is also true. That if we are not unified, that if we are divided in ways like we were prior to October the 7th, then there will be more October the 7ths. There will be more attacks like the ones that we see today. The more united we are, my friends, the more unbreakable we become. You've all heard the story, and maybe I'll end with this, of the father who had a dozen kids and was on his deathbed. And on his deathbed he called all of his children, and he tried to get the message across to them of how important it was for them to have each other's back. And the way that he did that was by asking for a pencil. And when they gave him a pencil, he snapped it like a twig. And then he asked for two, and he snapped them a little bit difficult. The third pencil made it even harder. By the time he had twelve pencils he passed them around to everybody and said try and break them. And they simply could not break a little pack of twelve pencils. Why? Because they were together. They were one. Divided, we are weak and frail. United, we will bring Meshiach and change this world into the utopia that it is intended to be. Thank you for spending time with us on the Trust Factor Podcast. If you've heard something today that moved you, save this episode and share it with someone who might need to hear it. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss upcoming conversations that challenge, empower, and uplift. And if you're on social media, connect with us. Leave your thoughts, drop a quote that resonated with you. Hashtag the TrustFactor Podcast. Until next time, keep growing in your trust and keep living with purpose. I'm Jesse Revivo, and this has been the TrustFactor Podcast. Thanks for listening.