Episode 107 - Your Obligations Followed Your Actions

The world is noisy on purpose, and if we are not careful we start confusing pressure with truth. Today we get honest about the split every Jew lives with: real obligations to bosses, bills, governments, and daily demands, alongside a higher obligation to Hashem, Torah, and mitzvot. We talk about why so many people feel like they are running on fumes, and how clarity returns when we stop handing 90% of our energy to whatever shouts the loudest.

We walk through a simple but challenging idea: the direction you choose is the direction you get pulled. When we constantly cater to secular systems, we often get more of that world in our mailbox and at our door. When we choose to serve Hashem more, learn more Torah, and add a mitzvah, we start seeing a different kind of protection and a different kind of peace. This is not abstract Jewish spirituality. It is a lived test of emunah and trust in God that shows up in decisions, priorities, and what we are willing to do when Torah and social pressure collide.

From Pirkei Avot we explore prayer, the Divine presence, and why a minyan matters, while also learning that the Shechinah can rest with five, three, and even one person learning Torah. We also talk about spiritual “shortcuts” like praying at the graves of righteous people, why they can help, and why nothing beats taking responsibility through mitzvot. Then we bring it into health and healing: choosing strong medical care without surrendering your faith, and what it would sound like if a doctor said, “I’ll do my best, but your health doesn’t depend on me.”

If this helped you reset your priorities, subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs encouragement, and leave a review so more people can find these conversations on trust, Torah, prayer, emunah, and faith-centred health.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

The trust factor is a ticket to a bell of life. The trust factor shows you how to get through the mind.

unknown 0:21

Trust factor.

Two Worlds One Responsibility

Swap Secular Fear For Torah

Take A Mitzvah And Test It

Minyan And The Divine Presence

Prayer Power Without Intermediaries

Health Emunah And Medical Choices

The Doctor Who Points Upward

Share Subscribe And Keep Growing

SPEAKER_00 0:22

The world is louder and more chaotic than ever. That's why clarity and truth have never been more important. Welcome to the Trust Factor Podcast. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Trust Factor Podcast. We're getting right into it because there's so much information to cover off, and I don't want it to go on longer than it has to. Here's the bottom line. Yesterday we said that if you want to choose, because as Jews, we have a dual obligation. As Jews, we are burdened by the responsibilities placed on our shoulders by governments and individuals and organizations and bosses and teachers and all these people who are making demands of us in this world, in the secular physical world. We have to maintain that because we've got one foot in this world. And at the same time, we also have a big boss, the creator, the one who gave us the Torah, the instruction manual that says do this and don't do that if you want to succeed. Which means now we have to balance. We have to balance what the creator wants of us versus what secularism and society and worldly affairs demand of us. How do you do that? Most people walk through this life. 90% of their energy and their effort is placed in secularism. Why? Because it's right in front of your face. You can't get away from it. Government is everywhere. Billboards are everywhere. Your boss you see all day long. It's highly demanding and it is front and center. There's no way of getting away from those responsibilities. So most people walk through this life spending 90, 95% of their time and resources catering to this world, these worldly affairs in secularism. Once in a while, if they're fortunate and they have a teacher or they're inspired and they can think outside of that box, then they can attribute some time back to the creator and his Torah and the rules and regulations, the proper ones given by the creator who knows all of creation. Then we get the opportunity to spend 5%, maybe 10% of our lives doing his will. And the reality is that that is a recipe for disaster. That's why the world is walking around like zombies. You see most of humanity walking around like chickens with their heads cut off. They have no idea of good and bad, right and wrong, what's real and what's not. You can't believe your eyes, you can't believe your ears. Nothing is truthful anymore. Why? Because we're living in a life and in a world where everybody chooses to dedicate 90, 95% or even 100% of their energy to following the burdensome rules of secular governments, which are all self-serving. How do you change that? And you should want to change that because now you have an option. And your option is that if you want to stop serving all these self-serving individuals and you only want to serve your creator who is completely selfless, then all you need to do is replace the amount of energy and effort that you put into governments and secularism with your creator. The more of his will that you do, the more of his Torah that you learn, the more you continue to conduct yourself in an upright manner and follow the instructions of his Torah, the less he will require that you invest in secular governments and systems and world systems, including bosses and corporations. See, we have that dual burden. So if we choose to employ, like most people do, 95% of our time and energy into secular governments, then Hashem says, okay, no problem. In the direction that you want to go, I have an obligation to take you. So if you want to serve humanity in their frailness and their weakness, I will enable you to do that. In fact, I will give you more opportunities. I will make sure you get the letters in the mail, I will make sure you get the phone calls and the knocks on the doors, all the things that you're constantly thinking about or fearing, I'm going to make sure that they end up materializing for you because ultimately that's who you want to follow. And you demonstrate that in your actions. However, if you choose instead to cater to your creator, to follow his rules, the divine rules that are all designed for your benefit, then Hashem says, okay, you're following in line with my standards, with my Torah, with my instructions, then I'm going to make sure that you don't need to follow any other ones, even when they conflict, even when one tells you to go left and the other tells you to go right, if you're listening to the Torah and the Torah tells you to go right while everybody else is telling you to go left and you make that right, then you will know with absolute certainty that there will be no repercussions for not taking the left. You will be entirely rewarded for having chosen correctly, having chosen to move forward with Hashem's Torah. He controls the world. He controls governments, he controls leaders of the world. They are puppets in his hand. And the only way to know this for certain is to actually do it. Put your neck out on the line a little bit and do something that goes against your nature. If your nature is to follow worldly pressures, your boss, your teachers, your government officials, whatever force seems to get more of your attention because you tend to fear or sense that you have more commitment or obligation to these forces, stop and reposition those obligations. Take on another mitzvah. Learn more Torah. Do something else that Hashem would want you to occupy your day with and watch and see how you benefit from all the things that you've done. And none of the things that you haven't done to cater to humanity don't come back to haunt you. He runs the world, my friends. The only way to know this is by actually doing it. Then it says, quick discussion. It says, you know that in Judaism, in order to pray properly, we have to have a minion, a quorum of 10 men. Where do we get that from? It says over here that if 10 people sit together and engage in Torah study, then the divine presence is present among them. What does that mean? It means that Hashem is closer. Hashem, his presence, comes down into a quorum of 10 men who are praying. And now it elevates that entire opportunity. And so because of that, there are additional prayers that can be said when you have 10 men as opposed to when you don't have those 10 men. You can't say these additional prayers. But the ethics of the fathers asks a question. Wait a second, maybe God's presence will come down and reside among people, even if there are only five. And it brings a verse to prove this. And the verse does just that. The verse proves that no, in fact, God's presence can come down and be among people as small as a group of five, as long as they are actively engaged in God's Torah. And then it continues. How do you know that maybe it's even referring to three people? And it brings another verse. And in that verse, it proves that, yes, indeed, God could even rest among a group of people as small as three. And then it continues. What about even one? And ultimately, this whole discussion comes to prove that the divine presence will come down and rest amongst even one individual who is sitting and learning Hashem's Torah and actively engaged in the mitzvah. What does that mean practically? Okay, Hashem's divine presence rests among us. What does that mean? What it means is that if we as Jews have a direct line to Hashem, where we don't need an intermediary, we don't need somebody as a messenger to take our prayers or to advocate on our behalf. Despite what anybody tells you, praying at the graves of righteous people is a very powerful tool to be able to get your prayers heard. But it's not necessary, not even close to being necessary. It's nice, it's like an embellishment. It's showing your creator that you're willing to go an extra mile, but ultimately that power resides in you exponentially more. If you want to take on an additional mitzvah to be able to have your prayers heard, and that's going to impact your life. So now you say, God, I'm willing to take on the mitzvah of, let's say, eating kosher. I never ate kosher before. Now I'm going to take it on, I'm going to make sure that I stop eating cheeseburgers, whatever the example is. Is that better than going to pray by the gravesite of a righteous person? It's about a trillion times better. Why? Because you have the same power to be able to break through the heavens and have your prayers answered, as opposed to somebody who just says, I'm going to hold where I am right now and I'm going to go and show Hashem that I can pray by one of his righteous, and they will advocate on my behalf, and that will help me know. You do the action yourself. There is no bigger advocation for yourself than to actually do the mitzvahs, to actually do Hashem's will. He will take much more notice of that than if you're just busy going around from gravesite to gravesite praying for his help. But the point is that there are certain times and places where God's presence comes down and rests among us and makes him that much closer to us, that much more accessible, that we could pray in any language, that if we pour our hearts out to him, our prayers are probably more easily answered. There are different benefits to having the divine presence right in front of you as opposed to worlds apart. Your message doesn't have to travel as far. And where are these places? There are a few of them. Number one, the Western Wall. It says Hashem's divine presence always rests in the Western Wall. So when you go there, it's his backyard. He's always there. That's why the prayers go express. Where's another place like that? In a hospital where people are actively dying, transitioning into the next world, that's also a place where the divine presence actively rests. So when you go to visit a sick person, make sure you pray there. It is an unbelievable opportunity to have your prayers heard. But you don't have to go to the hospital. And you don't have to go to Israel and get on a plane and fly across oceans. The divine presence also rests in a house where you have peace and harmony between husband and wife. There are so many places where the divine presence rests. Bottom line, the more you're engaged in his way of life, following his Torah, the more opportunities you will have to be close to the divine presence, which means Hashem is closer to you, which means he's listening to your prayers more than he would listen to somebody who's further away. You have a microphone. You are that much closer to the big boss. It's a no-brainer for me. It's obvious where I want to be. The more you do, the more he comes closer to you, which means his ear is closer to your lips. That wraps it up for Pierre Kevot. Let's get back into our book. Continuing in this discussion around our health, and obviously a lot is being written about this because it is a powerful tool. And for us, there is nothing more important than our health. If you want to be a functioning member of society, you need to have both your physical health and your mental emotional health. And so that's why there's so much content in it. Keeps going back and talking about these ideas. So let's run with it. It's only a few pages left, and then we're going to move on to another subject. It says, do you want to be a doctor? Do you want to help people? It says, do what you can, but don't rob a patient of his amuna. You know, we're living in secular times, right? By and large, the world is a secular place. And so most doctors don't have this. But you should know, and this should be an indication for you, that if you have a choice of where to go, which doctor to see, and you know that one is a religious doctor who follows the Torah and loves Hashem, then that should be your first inclination. Now, there is something to be said about going to somebody who is at the forefront. So if somebody is a well-known doctor, a specialist, somebody who very few people get access to and has massive amounts of success in this field, he doesn't even happen to be Jewish, it's not a problem. You should go that way. You have to make an effort, and your effort needs to be the best one possible. So if you have a choice to choose between a great doctor who's not even Jewish or a poor doctor who's Jewish and Orthodox, then you have to make a choice that demonstrates that you take your illness seriously. However, if you have a choice and two doctors are equal in terms of their abilities, one is a religious Jew and the other one is not, then you should make an effort to go with the religious Jew. Why? Because he's learned the things that I'm teaching you now, or at least the probability would be that he would have opportunities to learn this as opposed to the one who doesn't and therefore has much more propensity to have a God complex of his own. So if you want to become a doctor, no problem, you should do it. But if a patient doesn't listen to your advice, that's his problem. Don't paint your opinions with doomsday scenarios and dark colors. Don't forget that the creator alone decides the fate of each patient. The doctor's task is to be a worthy emissary of divine will and pray that he'll be fortunate enough to be an agent of healing and not death. There aren't many doctors in the world who are praying three times a day to make sure that they're not going to make a mistake in the way that they treat their patients. That's why I'm saying if you have a choice to go to a doctor that you know is an orthodox, God-fearing, God-loving individual, then that should be taken into account into serious accounts. A physician should therefore tell a patient, I'll do my best, but you should know that your health doesn't depend on me. Can you imagine a doctor saying that? That's why you should do your part, strengthen your amuna and trust in your creator. No matter what the outcomes of tests are, there are many surprises in medicine. And the creator can override any natural circumstance, as difficult as it may seem. I pray that he will give me the best advice in regards to your case, but you can contribute so much to your own recovery with prayer, with charity, with penitence, and with amuna. If we work together, hopefully the creator will grant you a full and speedy recovery. Can you imagine? Could you imagine going into your doctor's office and that's the conversation? Just that conversation alone makes me feel good. Just those words of encouragement alone gives me so much to hang on. Think about it, as opposed to just saying, wait your turn. Let's wait for the results of this blood test, this MRI, this scan. Let's figure out if we can get you in touch with this doctor and that specialist. Maybe we'll get you on a plane and fly you around the world and try this, you know, this new type of treatment that hasn't been proven yet, but it's in its experimental phase, but we have to do whatever we can. Everything to do with the material, the here and now. What can I buy? Where can I go? Who can I pull strings with? What favors can I call in? That having to rely on that? When can you book me in for a surgery? Who's before me? All those things will do is serve to bring you down and make you realize that there are more and more hurdles in your way of success. As opposed to this simple conversation, you're not going to get this conversation from a doctor who doesn't believe in God. You're never going to have this conversation with a doctor who doesn't learn Torah. When a doctor learns Torah, when you're a doctor and you're listening to this podcast, and then you go into the office, and now your odds of having this conversation with your patient becomes exponentially greater than any other doctor who's not taking the time to sit and learn Torah. So that's why I say and I repeat: if you have that opportunity to be able to choose all other things being equal, a doctor who is dedicated to Hashem and his Torah, it's a no-brainer, my friends. The same way when you get on a plane and you see the rabbis and the religious people coming on a plane and you suddenly feel that sense of ease about yourself, then now you know there's an extra level of protection on that plane. You're riding their coattails. Similar concept. When you see a doctor that's wearing a kippah and knows that there is a creator, then that should give you that extra sense of comfort to know that there's going to be extra potential there. Why? Because you're praying and the doctor's praying, and you both know who's going to bring you the recovery. It's a difference of night and day. Have an amazing one, my friends, and we'll chat tomorrow. 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 Trust Factor Podcast. Thanks for listening.