Episode 117 - What If Livelihood Was Never Yours To Control

The world is noisy on purpose, and that noise can make it harder to tell what’s true, what matters, and what kind of person you’re becoming. We open with a simple challenge: if you want better content in your life and in your community, you have to share what elevates you, not what numbs you. From there, we move into a sharp piece of Pirkei Avot wisdom that’s as practical as it is spiritual: run to do even a minor mitzvah, because small good deeds are often the training ground for the life you say you want.

We unpack why “minor” doesn’t mean meaningless. We don’t truly know which mitzvah is big in Heaven, and we don’t know which one is specifically big for us. Like the gym, you start with what you can lift and you build consistency. That consistency becomes habit, and habit becomes identity. We also look at the darker mirror of the same rule: one sin leads to another. Your choices don’t stay isolated; they pull the next opportunity behind them.

Then we shift into trust in God and livelihood, a real paradigm shift for anyone carrying financial anxiety. Our job is to show up and make honest effort; the outcome isn’t ours to control. We talk about why trying to get ahead through shortcuts often leaves you with money that doesn’t last, peace that disappears, and an accounting that feels exacting. The antidote is reflection: looking back at your life with honesty, including personal time with the Creator, so trust becomes something you live, not just something you quote.

If this helped you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the Trust Factor Podcast.

Transcript

Why Clarity And Truth Matter

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, and happy Monday. Thank you for joining us on another episode of the Trust Factor Podcast. I want to remind you, I often forget, you know, I'm not a professional influencer, so to speak. And so I'm not often reminding you, and I'm often told I should, to like and to share and subscribe and do all those things that people tell you to do because really that's what perpetuates this. So if you're enjoying it and if you want other people to enjoy from it, consider all of the craziness that's out in the world of the internet, the world of influencers and media, and just look at the quality of the content that's being put out there. It's being put out there, it seems like, in order to dumb down the generation, to really just turn you into sheep and zombies and not show you what's important and not show you how to live a proper, purposeful life. This podcast, and I'm sure there are others, though far and few between, are designed to elevate you, to really take your life to a next level, to be able to give you the tools to do the right things and make the right choices and live a good life. So if you want that for yourself and if you want that for others, then please share the podcast. Let other people know that there is good quality content in the world that will allow them to thrive. Having said that, let's get into some of that content. It says, Ben Azai used to say, run to perform even a minor mitzvah. Why a minor mitzvah? Because that, like I said the other day, when you walk into a gym, you don't start off with 300 pounds on the bench press. You start off with the bar, and then you build up. So that's one way to understand this is to run to perform a minor mitzvah. Now, you could interpret it as even a minor mitzvah. That is to say, that don't just run after the big ones. What you determine are the big ones because you don't know. I don't know. We don't know what's considered an important mitzvah, a big mitzvah, versus a tiny minor one. We have no idea what the calculation is in the heavens. Now, we do have insight into understanding the importance and the value of the mitzvah based on its reward or its punishment, its consequence. If the consequence is drastic, then you understand the implication is that it's an important mitzvah. And the opposite is true. If the consequence of the mitzvah is limited, then we know that that mitzvah is not necessarily one that carries a lot of weight with it. Now, we don't always know what the reward is. In most cases, we don't know what the reward is. Oftentimes we just know what the punishment or the negative consequences are for doing an Aveira. Having said that, we should therefore run after even a minor mitzvah, meaning what we think is minor. Don't do the math, because it could very well be that the minor mitzvah that you're passing up on, the one that you've interpreted as not very important, could be not just a critical one in general, but it could be one for you. That could be the reason that you were brought back, that you never really did this mitzvah or these few mitzvahs, because you disregarded them. You thought that they were tiny and unimportant. And so you didn't do them in previous go-rounds. And so now you're brought back. And every time you're brought back, if you keep passing up on them, then you've missed the point. So therefore it says, run after even a minor mitzvah. That will also bring you to becoming accustomed to doing the mitzvahs. If you start with smaller ones, what you consider easy for you to do, then you get into a habit. It becomes habitual that you're doing these mitzvahs, and then as the bigger ones come along, they become easier for you to do. And flee from sin. Most people haven't got a clue of the consequence associated with our behaviors in terms of mitzvahs, good deeds, and sins, averas. You have to flee from the opportunity to do a sin. And it tells you all of this because it says one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah. And one sin leads to another sin. But it's said in Hebrew like this: it says, mitzvah gorerit mitzvah, the avera, gorerit averah. What is ligror gorerit? It means it literally toes it behind it. Like a tow truck is called a grar in Hebrew. A mitzvah toes behind it, another mitzvah. Also to say that that is the reward for the mitzvah. The reward for having done a good deed is another opportunity to do a good deed. You gave somebody charity, somebody came before you and put their hand out and asked you for a few dollars, and you gave them charity. Now you know what's going to happen? You're going to get a knock on your door, and somebody else is going to ask for charity in a few days from now. And you're going to wonder to yourself one of two things. Why did I give the first person that charity? Because now the word is out, and now everybody's coming to ask for charity. And now you feel like you're behind the APL. Or you're going to think to yourself, this is amazing. Look, I've been now established as the home where charity comes from. People know to come and knock on my door for a few bucks. How are you going to look at it? I'll tell you, in my younger days, I would have preferred the former over the latter. I would have thought to myself, uh-oh, what a mistake that was. Look, I gave somebody a few bucks and now the word's out and everybody's coming, they're not going to leave me alone. Today, that I'm more educated and more aware, I wish I was positioned as that individual. There is an honor associated with that, not from the public's perspective. I'm not talking about how the public views you. I'm saying from myself, my family, my creator, to know that we are the house that people come to when they're looking for a handout. To know that we are the house that people come to when they're looking for Torah or they're coming for assistance or they're coming for support. If they know our house is that address, there is a tremendous honor that is associated with that. That's the right way to look at this, my friends. Most of us aren't built that way because society tells us the exact opposite: that the more you give away, the more of a sucker you are, the more of a fool you are, because people are out there to take advantage of you. Sure, there are scammers in the world. There's no question. But our outlook on people who are cheaters and liars is that they will get what's coming to them from the big boss upstairs. If you know that it is a scam, then you have to be careful. You should not give to that person. But if it comes across as genuine and you've done your homework and you give that charity, and it turns out that person was a scammer, anyways, let them suffer the consequence, because guess what? They're going to have to give an accounting after 120 years, also. But for me, the mindset, remember, we talked about how important the mindset was when you do something in Judaism. The mindset for me was to give charity to an individual and to help them to get back on their feet. If they turned out to be a scammer, I still get the full reward for having given the charity. And that person is going to suffer serious consequences when the time comes. So one mitzvah toes behind it another, and one sin does the same. The sin toes behind it another sin. You've sinned, and therefore you're going to be given another opportunity to sin. Why? Because God is testing you. It's a constant test. Are you going to pass? You failed then. Are you going to fail now or are you going to pass? The power is in our hands. He's testing us to see how we are going to fare. And then it says the consequence of a mitzvah is a mitzvah. And the consequence of a sin is a sin. Listen to this story. A wealthy and learned Jew decided to tour all of the yeshivas, the places of Torah learning, in order to find a scholar, a Torah scholar, to marry off his daughter. And he prepared an elaborate Talmudic discourse, a bunch of questions based on the Gemara, difficult ones. For most people, it would be very difficult to understand or to come up with the answers, leaving out a few difficult questions so that he could pose them to the students that he met. When he arrived at each and every one of the yeshivas that he met, he made it known very clearly to all of these students that whoever could come up with the answers to these questions, these Talmudic questions, would be granted not only his daughter's hand in marriage, but also a massive dowry that's going to allow them to live a life worry-free of finances. On the third morning of his stay at a particular yeshiva, the wealthy Jew was visited by yet one more young man, walking in with a Gemara under his hand, a Talmud. The student entered the house and wished this wealthy Jew a good morning and said to him, I've been working on this topic for days. I've been racking my brain with it, and I can't come up with the answers. Could you please tell me what the answers are? And the man says to him, I think you've missed the point here, young man. I'm here to get the answers from you. I'm the one giving away my daughter and all of this money. But I need to know that you're a scholar, and therefore I need the answers from you. I'm not here to give you the answers. And the young man says to the older rich man, You don't understand, mister. I'm not here for your daughter. I'm not here for your money. I'm here because your questions are driving me crazy. And I love my Gemara learning, and I'm learning all day, every day. And despite my learning, I can't come up with your answers. So please keep your daughter and keep your money. I just want the answers. And as a result of that, this wealthy Jew took this young man as his son-in-law. Why? Because it wasn't about the reward. It wasn't about the consequence of getting it right. It was about the action of getting it right. And that's why it says that the consequence, the reward or the punishment. So the reward for a mitzvah is the mitzvah itself. And the consequence of the average of the sin is the sin itself. That's it, my friends, for Pirke Vot. Let's get back into our book. It says complete trust in the creator includes the trust that livelihood is part of his divine providence over all of creation. Complete trust means that you know where your money's coming from. It is the creator's place to worry about one's livelihood and not the individual's. I want you to listen to that. This is critical, guys. It's a paradigm shift. This will shift the way that you think about life, the way you think about money, the way you think about your job and your business. This is it. If we knew this, if we understood this to be true, life would look so different. Again, it is the creator's place to worry about one's livelihood and not the individual's. Therefore, one who trusts in God is relieved of the worry about livelihood and is free to concentrate on his or her own specific task on earth with a clear mind. Such people know that the creator will fulfill his task faithfully. Could you imagine if we walked around, if humanity walked around with this knowledge? Not that it's a nice idea, not that it's a good concept to tune into, to maybe think about or try and think. This is the way the world was created. He brought you into the world. The other day we said that he can't bring you into life without a livelihood. This is what it's saying. It's his responsibility to worry about your livelihood. He's the one who determines how much you make and when you're going to make it. You're the one who determines whether or not it actually happens just by merely getting up and going to work. Could you imagine? Just by setting your alarm, opening your eyes in the morning, getting up and going to work, whatever that work may be, is completely irrelevant. Just going to that job, getting there and putting in a full day's work, giving 100% like everybody else does, you will come out with the amount that was determined for you by your creator. That's it. If you sit at home on the couch, you've got a different problem because we're in the world of action. And God says, Bizatapatim, by the sweat of your brow, you will eat. So you have to get out and make an effort. You have to do something, take an action to make a living. But that's it. That's where it starts and that's where it stops. Could you imagine you would stop all of the difficulties in the world if everybody understood this and made it a part of their being to understand that I doesn't matter what I don't need to steal, I don't need to take something that's not mine, I don't need to cheat, I don't need to be corrupt. I don't need to worry about myself. Why? Because he's worrying about me. Because he knows what I'm supposed to get and he's gonna give it to me. And if this sounds hokey to you, just look back at your own life and reflect and be honest. And you will see clearly that oftentimes, every time, you put out an effort and you go and stretch yourself out and do something that you know is not necessarily above board because you're trying to do it to get ahead, to make a few extra bucks. Number one, either those few extra bucks never arrive, or when they do, it's right in and right out. Easy cop, easy go. It doesn't last and it doesn't leave any meaningful results behind. You don't purchase anything meaningful from it. And if you did, God forbid, then only misery would come from that thing that you purchased. It doesn't help. The accounting is precise and exacting. You think you made a few extra bucks over here by being crafty, and then all of a sudden, right over here, you've lost those exact few extra dollars. It is exacting and precise. The accounting that happens in the heavens, my friends. That is Hashem's accounting. It doesn't matter what you do, your control is limited. If anything, you can only control getting up and going to work. The rest, how much comes and when it comes, and the promotions and the business success, it's all out of your hands. You can only get up in the morning and go to your work or go to your business. After that, it's out of your hands. If we lived like that, which we all need to, then you would change the world dramatically. The world would be a very different place, a place where you would see minimal to no corruption at all. But unfortunately, we're taught the opposite. So it's time to relearn this, my friends. That's the point of this podcast, is make it real. It's not just words in a book. And how do you make it real? Reflect, look back, assess your life. Remember, one hour of Hidba Dudu, one hour of personal reflection with your creator. That's where you review your day. That's when you review your week and your month and your year and your life. When you do that, you have an opportunity to see these things. If you're too busy moving forward and trying to find out crafty ways to make a few extra bucks, then you're never taking the time to reflect on who's actually sending you the money. Have an amazing day, my friends. We 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.