Episode 122 - Money from Theft Damages Legitimate Earnings

Stop comparing your spiritual life to someone else’s highlight reel. We start with a grounded reminder that your relationship with God is unique, and even when you admire others or learn from them, you’re still responsible for building a path that fits your soul, your history, and your strengths. That one shift can change everything, because it replaces performance with purpose and pressure with trust.

From Pirkei Avot, we unpack Rabbi Meir’s teaching on studying Torah for its own sake and why “for the sake of heaven” is the defining standard. Then we explore three different, deeply practical definitions from major Jewish thinkers: Rambam (Maimonides) on serving out of pure love without chasing reward, Tanya on connecting through your own comprehension and intellect, and Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin on learning Torah to understand it, apply it, and solve real problems. Different approaches, same direction: truth, humility, patience, and a life that feels aligned.

We close with a sharp turn into emunah and finances, drawn from Garden of Emuna. If faith means believing God runs the world, it also means refusing “illegal means” and shady shortcuts to make money. We talk honesty in business, paying workers properly, why dishonest income is spiritually corrosive, and how contentment lowers anxiety and builds real wealth. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs steadiness right now, and leave a review with the line that stayed with you.

Transcript

Your Relationship With God Is Unique

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Don't ever compare yourself to anybody on this planet when it comes to your relationship with your creator. You can look, you can admire, you could take advice, no problem. But you are unique and you have a unique relationship with your creator, and that is what you should foster. The trust factor is the ticket to a better life. The trust factor shows you how to get through the life. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Trust Factor Podcast. It's Sunday. I hope you had an amazing Shabbat. Mine was beautiful. We have an amazing long weekend ahead of us. And I want to share with you guys some of the Pierre Kavot, the ethics of the fathers that I shared at Shul, this Shabbat. I gave it over a couple of times over Shabbat, and it took me about 40 minutes to go through it. In one case, it took me almost an hour. So I'm going to cut it back down for you guys just to squeeze it in here, seven or eight minutes, because it's very important and it's very enlightening. It's a beautiful, beautiful idea. Listen to this. I'll read it first and then I'll go back and we're just gonna go over it on a very high level because there's so much to unpack over here. We simply don't have the time for it. But it says, Rabbi Mayer said whoever engages in Torah study for its own sake merits many things, and then he goes into an unbelievable list. But it starts with furthermore, the creation of the entire world is worthwhile for his sake alone. You hear that? The entirety of creation over millennia was worthwhile in his eyes, but just for the individual that sits and learns Torah for the sake of heaven. Here's what he gets. He's called a friend. You're called a friend of your creator, a beloved, a loved one of Hashem. He loves God. He loves God's creatures, creations. He gladdens God, makes Hashem happy. He gladdens God's creatures. The Torah clothes him in humility and the fear of God. It makes him fit to be righteous, devout, fair, and faithful. It moves him away from sin and draws him near to merit. We're not done yet. Think about all these things. Just the first one, that all of creation was worthwhile just for you. That's enough. But look at all this. You're considered righteous, devout, fair, all these things, faithful. From him people enjoy counsel and wisdom, understanding and strength. The Torah gives him kingship and dominion and analytical judgment. The secrets of the Torah are revealed to him. In other words, the secret of the world of creation are revealed to an individual who sits and learns Torah for the sake of heaven. He becomes a steadily strengthening fountain and like an unceasing river. He becomes modest, patient, and forgiving of insult to himself. The Torah makes him great and exalts him above all things. Just think. Remember, we talked about this. What's our purpose? Everybody has the same 30,000-foot purpose. Then you can drill down to your individual purpose. But that 30,000-foot purpose for every one of us is to emulate our creator. Look at what it says over here. You become modest, patient, and forgiving of insult. Who do we attribute all of these character traits to? Your creator. So when you're learning from his Torah, when you're learning from his work, his instruction manual, you're effectively refining your character to become like your creator. But that's not what I'm going to focus on. I want to go back to the beginning where it says that all of creation was worthwhile for that individual who studies Torah. And it says, for its own sake, in other words, for the sake of heaven, what is so important about those words? Those are defining. Those words change the whole picture. Somebody can learn Torah with an ulterior motive. They can learn Torah if they're in Torah circles. They can learn Torah to become the head of a school, to become praiseworthy, to have the honor that comes with it, especially in Torah circles, to be held out as the leader of the generation. There's so many reasons, ego to be able to learn Torah so that you can outdo your friend and your knowledge of Hashem's Torah. Many reasons to learn Torah that do not fall under the category of for its own sake, for the sake of heaven. So he's saying over here, all of these wonderful things that apply to us only apply if we're learning it for the sake of heaven. So now the question becomes how do we define the sake of heaven? And I'm going to run you through three different definitions of what that means. And we're going to start off with the Rambam, Maimonides, who says this concept of learning it for the sake of heaven is acting for no ulterior motive except for the love of God. You hear that? Saying that one should not practice the commandments and even engage in Torah wisdom. Don't learn Torah in order to receive God's blessings. If you're doing it for reward, don't do it. Nor even in order to merit the life hereafter. If you're doing it to be able to secure your world of eternity, don't do it. Nor should one refrain from sin out of fear of punishment and loss of life in the hereafter. If you're doing it either for the reward or because you fear punishment, Rambam Mahimanis says, Don't do it. Don't learn Torah. It's not for the sake of heaven. However, one who serves out of love is one who is motivated by no extraneous or ulterior cause, but engages in truth for the love of truth. Truth is Torah. Truth is God. God is truth. Somebody who engages in truth because they love truth. They're sick and tired of walking through this life that is full of lies and is full of deceit and full of corruption. It's an Olama Shekhar. It's a world of lies. God told us that. We have to run after truth. We have to fall in love with the concept of truth, which is the representative of Hashem. Therefore, we need to fall in love with our creator. That's what he's saying over here. Whatever you do, you must do only out of love. That's Maimonides. He says, like King David said in the Song of Songs that we sing often. It's a beautiful song, a love letter between King David and Hashem. And he says, Kiholat ahava anni. Can you imagine getting to the point in your life where you're sick in love? You're infatuated with your creator. Let me give you a quick tip before we move on on how to do that. How do you fall in love with your creator? Very easy. Open your eyes and open your mind and look around and see creation. Look at the universe and the exacting precision. Look at all of the benefits that the galaxies provide us. If you understood what all of these planets doing their thing does for our benefit and our survival, you would be blown away. If you have no idea how all of the solar system works to our benefit, and he creates it not for the animals and not for the trees and not for the grass. He creates it for us, the highest order, and he maintains it every single second of every day, just for our benefit. When you look around and see what he does for our benefit and our success, you can't help but fall in love with him. You just can't. We go from there to Tanya, Likutea Marim, which says that unlike the Rambam, it says it has nothing to do. The study of Torah for the sake of heaven has nothing to do with love and attachment to Hashem, but it's got to do with how you attach. And that it has to be through your own comprehension of Torah, each person according to his own intellect. We're not all the same. We don't understand things the same. We don't digest things the same information. We don't interpret it the same. We all have our own custom-created lives. And as a result of that, he expects from us to be able to connect back to him and his Torah through our own intellect, our God-given intellect. You can develop it, you can work on it, but you're always going to be limited based on the abilities that he gave you. So if you're using them and you're happy, you're content, and you know this is how I operate in my relationship with my creator, and I'm always trying to get better, but I'm not him and I'm not her. I'm me. That's how you learn Torah for the sake of Torah. That's according to the Tanya. And the final one is Rabbi Chaim of Volojin, who says, again, nothing to do with love and your own intellect. But he says that the way to connect to your creator means to study purely for the sake of Torah itself. In other words, to know and understand its contents and to apply his knowledge to enhance his understanding and solve new problems. Take the instruction manual that was given to us in this world, in this physical world, and use it to uplift, to elevate all of the things that are material in this world, to be able to solve problems in this life. That's what he says. He makes it very practical. He takes it out of this idea of emotion and love and connection and makes it here and now and practical and action-filled. What are you doing? Are you learning the Torah? Are you unlocking the secrets that are in it to be able to benefit you in this life? And so the ultimate question that I had for everybody in Shul was who's right? We have three vastly different approaches to what it means to study Torah for the sake of heaven and to benefit from all of these things that Rabbi Mayer said. And the answer is, they're all right because that's the picture of Judaism. It's not a cookie-cutter religion. You don't fit into a box like everybody else. That's not how we roll. We are a religion that is very much custom crafted to the individual. There is room within our Torah to be able to personalize it, to have a personal relationship with your creator that is different than everybody else's relationship. And when you acknowledge that and you realize that we are not a mold type relationship or religion, then you have a completely different approach and appreciation for this religion of Judaism. Hashem knows he created us, he knows our strengths and our weaknesses, he knows what we're good at and what we're bad at. And as a result of that, he knows who we are and all of our history and what brought us to this point today. And as a result of that, he expects from you very different things than he expects from everybody else. Don't ever compare yourself to anybody on this planet when it comes to your relationship with your creator. You can look, you can admire, you could take advice, no problem. But you are unique and you have a unique relationship with your creator, and that is what you should foster. Okay, friends, we're back into the book. We're going to finish off the last few minutes over here in the Garden of Amuna. And it says the more a person lacks Amuna, the more a person fails to see that God runs this world, the more he or she is liable to contemplate illegal means of making money. Dishonesty and a lack of amuna are notorious partners. They go hand in hand. If you lack amuna, you are a dishonest person. If you see a dishonest person, you know they lack amuna. They are one and the same. But with amuna, one understands that God provides a livelihood within the framework of the biblical principles. Any money destined to reach a person does so permissibly and by honest means. It doesn't matter what you do. As long as you get up and you make an effort, doesn't matter what your job is, doesn't matter what industry you're in, doesn't matter what you do for a living, you show up, you set that alarm clock, and you get up and you go to work and you put in a full day's work, you are going to get exactly what's coming to you. And if it means you're going to make hundreds of millions of dollars, then you're going to make it. It's not because you're smarter than the other person. It's not because you're better looking the other person, it's not because you're more talented than your coworkers. It's because that was destined for you. Don't think too much of yourself. Understand that money comes with a massive test. And if on the opposite end of the coin you are destined to have a very difficult year, to not be able to make ends meet, then recognize that there is nothing you can do and there's no amount of attempts that you can make to steal and take something that doesn't belong to you, that's going to improve your life. On the contrary, it's going to make it even worse. He says, remember this one spiritual rule. Money that one obtains by transgressing biblical laws, i.e., lying, cheating, withholding a worker's salary. That's a very big one. You've got to pay your employees right away. Fraud and stealing, just to name a few, is not only cursed, that money that you maintain, that you retain through theft and through holding a, withholding a worker's salary, not only is that money cursed, but it also damages one's legitimately earned money. It's going to take away from the money that was coming to you otherwise. You can't get ahead by ulterior means. It needs to be by what he determined. You can make all the efforts and rack your brain and get yourself in all kinds of trouble trying to get ahead. It's not going to get you ahead. You're going to end up losing somewhere else. And if you're honest with yourself, you know this is true because you've seen it in your own life many times. Just like a rotten apple damages the good apples in the same basket. That money that you bring in from corrupt, deceitful means in your attempt to be able to get what you feel is yours is going to have a negative impact on the money that was really yours or that is already yours and you've already earned and achieved. So you have to be very careful to be content and recognize where the money's coming from. When you do, your life becomes so much better. Your stress level goes way down. Anxiety around money and finances and making ends meet goes right out the window. You become that person who is content with his lot in life. And we've said before, that's the person who is truly wealthy. Have an amazing day. 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.