Episode 140 - When Money Changes Everything

The Spiritual Guide to Wealth: Understanding Emunah and Its Role in Abundance**

Embracing the Torah's Teachings

When we discuss the principles of wealth, it’s essential to recognize the difference between simply knowing these teachings and truly incorporating them into our lives. Oftentimes, we find ourselves quoting books and sharing thoughts, only to realize that retaining this knowledge requires continuous effort. The goal is not just to learn once or twice but to integrate these concepts into our very being.

The Dangers of Chasing Wealth

Many chase after wealth, believing it will bring happiness. Society has conditioned us to think that success is tied to money—buying bigger houses, fancier cars, and the latest technology. But this mindset can lead to a downward spiral. The pursuit of wealth often jeopardizes our morals and values. The truth is, you can earn money in a kosher way without losing your integrity. Gambling and chasing unrealistic dreams can lead to greater losses and ultimately does not guarantee happiness.

The Illusion of Sudden Wealth

Sudden windfalls, such as winning the lottery, are often more of a curse than a blessing. Those who come into unexpected wealth frequently face severe emotional and spiritual challenges. Examples abound of people who, after a sudden influx of money, find themselves in tragic situations, from addiction to loss. The emotional and spiritual preparedness to handle sudden wealth is crucial. Most people lack this preparedness, leading to disorientation and arrogance when faced with newfound riches.

The Role of Emunah in Wealth Management

Emunah, or faith, is the spiritual vessel necessary to handle abundance. Understanding that wealth is a temporary deposit from the Creator allows individuals to manage it wisely. Recognizing that money is not ours, but rather intended for good deeds and purpose, shifts our perspective. Those with Emunah understand that wealth can be taken away just as easily as it is given, fostering humility and responsibility in how they use their resources.

Practical Applications of Emunah in Wealth

To cultivate Emunah, one must practice prudence with their wealth. This includes tithing and investing in charitable endeavors that promote spiritual growth and community support. By putting money towards meaningful causes, you align yourself with the Creator’s intentions, ensuring that your wealth serves a greater purpose. As you give back, you reinforce the understanding that your financial success is a responsibility, not just a privilege.

Conclusion: Preparing for Abundance

In conclusion, while we should aspire to be wealthy, it is imperative to be spiritually and emotionally prepared to handle that wealth. This preparation involves understanding the principles of Emunah, allowing us to receive and retain wealth in a way that uplifts ourselves and those around us. As we embrace these teachings, we can transform our relationship with money, ensuring it serves as a tool for good in the world. 

Have an amazing Shabbat, and let’s continue this journey together!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What happens to the guy who gets the money overnight? Suddenly the nouveau rich husband no longer wants his wife, and vice versa. She no longer wants him. Who is this guy? It's not the guy I married. All of a sudden he turned into this arrogant, pompous individual. I have no interest in this guy. He's not a good husband anymore. He's not a good father anymore. He surrounds himself with the wrong people. He brings the worst of society home because he won money. All of a sudden he went the other way. This is real life, my friends. Real life. The trust factor. The trust factor shows you how to get through. Good morning, everybody, and welcome. It's Friday. We cranked out another week. If you've been following along, then you've been growing at an incredible, incredible pace. Just the content that we've covered off this week alone puts you on another level. People don't stop to learn these things. These are Torah ideals. These are things that were taught to us by our Creator thousands of years ago. Secrets locked away in the Torah on how to be an unbelievable version of yourself. The best, to reach the apex, the pinnacle of who you can be. We're cutting through that every single day. Now, there's a very big difference in knowing this information and utilizing it. There's another difference in knowing it and remembering it. Oftentimes I find myself quoting the book. I start to read, and then I give you my own two cents. And then the very next day I come to see what we're up to and I see that we're about to talk about my own two cents. It just goes to show you that while I've read this book three, four, or five times, I'm retaining the information. I'm incorporating it into my life and I'm making it real. These concepts resonate with me. They make sense. And so it's not enough for me to just learn them once or twice or three times. If I have to go back and learn them every time anew, there's a problem. There's a reason why they're familiar to me. They're familiar because I make it a part of who I am. And the more you can do that, the better off you will be. These aren't just nice ideas to help you get to the next level of life or to help you get through this life. These are ideas that are game-changing, that need to be implemented on a daily basis. Take these ideas and make them real in your life. Utilize them every single day and in every situation, and your life will become exponentially better day after day. Every day that goes by, you will continue to win. I want to read from the book because there's so much here. It's just diamonds. It's priceless gems. So I want to read from here and we'll cut through out and I'll give you my two cents again. This one's called The Difficult Test. We've been learning about the whole concept of people chasing after money, going to casinos, doing all kinds of things they shouldn't be doing to be able to get to that carrot that they're dangling in front of you, to get to the holy grail, right? That society has said you have to chase this. If you want to be successful, chase money. Buy a bigger house, get a fancier car, get the latest technology, do the things we tell you to do, sleep in the office, work overtime, do whatever it takes to make a few extra bucks. Forget the fact that we're going to tax you even more for every dollar you make incrementally. That forget about that. That's useless. Just keep burying your head in the sand and barrel forward, make as much money as possible. That will make you happy. And in fact, it does the exact opposite. There is no need to jeopardize your morals or your values to be able to earn that dollar. You can do it in the most kosher way possible. And there is nothing that you can do, including going to a casino, that will put one extra dollar in your pocket. In fact, two things we say. Number one, it's going to potentially take away, it's going to give you greater losses. You had X amount set aside for losses this year. That this, going to the casino or doing things that you shouldn't be doing, that I'm not kosher, have the potential to make that damage even worse. And even if you do make money out of the casino, that money does not come with a blessing. So stay away from it. Yesterday I got some ridiculous comment on one of my posts. Somebody watched my soundbite talking about what I just told you. And they said, I'm willing to take that chance. I was talking about the fact that the systems are rigged and that it's all set up for you to fail, and that these casinos are built on blood money and all these different things and how it's just a scam in order to take your hard-earned money. And this guy says, I'm willing to take that chance. Just goes to show you, and I said, spoken like a true gambler. It's exactly what it is. They could show you that you would lose every single time, and you would still bet if there was a one in a trillion chance that you were going to be the winner. That's how sad it is. That's how badly people want to run after a buck. It reminds me of that movie with uh Jim Carrey, Dumb and Dumber, when he's asking this girl to go out on a date with him, and she's obviously way out of his league, and there's no chance it's ever gonna happen. And she says, Yes, yeah, it's one in a trillion or something like that. And the guy's like, oh, so you're saying there's a chance. And he's like, renewed vigor, right? All of a sudden there's a chance. It doesn't matter how minuscule that opportunity is that I'm gonna win the lottery or that I'm gonna hit the jackpot, I'll take those chances. I'll sell up my wife and my children, my home, everything I make to be able to have a chance at winning in a corrupt lottery. Guys, it becomes, at one point, it becomes a real illness. Let's read. Sudden windfall, such as inheritance or a winning lottery ticket, is a serious and difficult test of faith. Experience shows that many people who acquire sudden wealth ultimately suffer severe emotional and spiritual maladies, even suicide, God forbid. I gave you guys the example of the cowboy, the older cowboy, who won that lottery and his granddaughter, who he loved so much and showered her with all kinds of money to be able to see her happy, suddenly had to bury her because she died in a drug overdose. And he wished that he can give every penny back. But it's too late. No chance. Or what about ex-pro athletes that you see were once in the prime of their life making untold fortunes, and suddenly you see them or you don't see them because the media doesn't show you, but if you look, you'll see that they're addicted to drugs, that they're out living in the streets, they've got not a dollar left to their name. What happened, right? They weren't ready for that kind of wealth. They weren't primed for it. It says most people lack the emotional and spiritual gear that's required to successfully deal with more than they're accustomed to. You need special gear, you need special powers. Not everybody can manage this. On the contrary, if they walk into untold fortunes overnight, it's very dangerous. It can sink them, and nine times out of ten, it does. They become disoriented and arrogant. What happens to the guy who gets the money overnight? Suddenly, the new Vorish husband no longer wants his wife, like I said yesterday, and vice versa. She no longer wants him. Who is this guy? It's not the guy I married. All of a sudden, he turned into this arrogant, pompous individual. I have no interest in this guy. He's not a good husband anymore, he's not a good father anymore, he's never around. He surrounds himself with the wrong people, he brings the worst of society home. Why? Because he won money? All of a sudden he went the other way. This is real life, my friends. Real life. If you don't think this is true, give me a call and I'll give you real life examples. They entertain fantasies of glamour and grandeur. Suddenly they're living in Lalaled. They use their money imprudently, squander it, or make useless or senseless investments, and they fall prey to con artists, greedy relatives, newly found friends, or white-collar swindlers, such as unethical lawyers, accountants, investment brokers. This paragraph itself is an eye-opener. It's shocking. All of a sudden, these people are coming out of the woodworking. All of a sudden, you haven't spoken to these family members in years. They wanted nothing to do with you. You won the lottery and they come knocking with big smiles on their faces. Wow, are they ever happy for you? And they want to be around you. And suddenly they're calling you all the time, and text messages are coming in. They want to reestablish and reconnect. Why? Where were you a month ago? Where were you last week? I haven't seen you in 20 years. Suddenly you want to be my best friend. It's a very, very big test, my friend. All of a sudden your friends come along and you've got all these wonderful friends. Wait a second. I'm 50 years old. I'm 60 years old. I haven't had new friends in decades. I've been living my life the same, going to work, producing, coming home, product for my family, and repeating. I barely have, you know, two or three friends in the world that I can lean on once in a while. And suddenly everybody wants to be my friend. Suddenly I'm getting invites to all these different events. Everybody's cozying up to me. It's gross. It's absolutely gross. But you don't know about that until when, until you're put in that position. And then you're blinded by the fog. And I've seen this again many times. Good people make a ton of money and suddenly they have no ability to distinguish between people who were genuine, who are just there for their money. And they surround themselves as a result of that with people who are crooks and who are only out to be able to get as much as they can from them. I've got a great investment opportunity. I've got something that just crossed my desk. You've got to take a look at this. Now that you've got the ability, because you've got money, you know, it's an opportunity. Otherwise, yesterday you couldn't invest in this. Today, you've got the opportunity. It's on my desk. Come see it. You're going to love it. You're going to want to invest. And so on and so forth. And as a result of that, you fall into all these different scams and all these different investment opportunities. Kevin O'Leary, you guys know the name. He used to be a dragon on Dragon's Den, and now he's moved into the U.S. He's uh he's on a whole other level over there. Kevin O'Leary, I remember hearing him say that when he became wealthy, he went through all of these tests. These were his biggest tests, were friends, quote unquote friends and family members coming out of the woodworking and asking for money, that he had to develop a policy. And his policy was that he was going to give every one of his family members who asked for investment capital, he would give them a set amount, $50,000, whatever it was. I think it was $50,000. You ask, you get a one-time contribution of $50,000. Do whatever business you want with it. But whether you win or lose is irrelevant. Don't come back and ask for more. He had to establish this policy. Why? Because of exactly what the book is telling you. So what's the answer? Emuna is the only proper and capable spiritual vessel for handling an abundance of wealth. Why? Why is it that if I want to be a wealthy individual and I want to be successfully wealthy and that it doesn't sink me, I need to have emuna. That's the prerequisite, is to know that the money is coming from a creator, that the money is coming from a source that is not me, that is outside of me, that I am irrelevant in the equation. And the answer is a wealthy individual with Amuna knows that the money belongs to the creator. It doesn't belong to me. It is only a temporary deposit in his or her hands in order to live an upright life and to help make this world a better place. What an outlook. How can you go wrong when you have that outlook? When you stop and say to yourself, wait a second, this lottery could have gone to anybody. Or this business could have been anybody else's business. It's got nothing to do with me. Instead of taking all of the credit and thinking I'm smarter than everybody else, I'm making better decisions than everybody else, I'm more capable than everybody else, I've got my finger on the pulse, I can interpret data differently. You can make up a million different excuses as to why you are the hero of the story. The guy with Emuna doesn't do that. The guy who knows that the money is coming from a big boss or my creator says it's got nothing to do with me. It could have just as easily been my brother and my sister, my cousin, my uncle, my next door neighbor, anybody. It just so happens that I can utilize these monies to be able to achieve my purpose in life. And God, in his love for me, is giving me that opportunity. And so now I have to prove that I can do it. It's a big test. And again, not everybody has that amuna, that emotional or spiritual ammunition to be able to deal with it. Since they know that the creator decides we'll be rich and who'll be poor, they don't slip into arrogance. I could just as easily owe millions of dollars instead of having millions of dollars in the bank, just as easily. But instead, I've got millions of dollars in the bank. So that puts me in a different position. Not one to take advantage of everybody else, but one to be able to assist the others. They know that the creator can take their money away at an instant, just as easily as it came. It can go. There is nothing that commands that it stays with me. So why boast about it? If I know that it can be taken away in an instant, have a little bit of humility. Be humble and recognize that you were put in a position of a caretaker, a security guard. You manage that money in a way that is above board and kosher, and you do with it the things that he would want you to do with it, and your life will be fine. Then you will increase your odds of maintaining it or even getting more of it. But squander it and make bad choices with it, and suddenly it leaves just as quickly as it can. They use their money prudently and in accordance with the principles of Amuna, and they take their 10%. You have to tithe 10%. So you take your net income and you give. Now, when you're holding on that level where you're making all kinds of fortunes, way beyond what your means are, you've got more money for you and your children and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren for generations, right? 10% is not enough, my friend, right? That number creeps up to 20% and possibly even more than that. But tithes, you have an obligation to give. So this person who has a Muna understands. What did I do for the money that this guy didn't do? He works just as hard, if not harder than me. He's got a family, he's got a wife, he's got more kids than me, he's got all the same things I have, if not more, in terms of expenses and responsibilities. So what? So now I'm gonna store away millions, tens of millions of dollars. This guy can't even make his ends meet, his month end. He can't even make that balance out. I've got tens of millions of dollars sitting in my bank and in investments and in buildings and real estate, and I'm gonna hang on to that for dear life. It doesn't make any sense. How's he surviving another day? If I need that to survive another day, all it is is a hole in the head. And he says that over here. These people who have amuna, they invest in worthwhile charitable endeavors, especially spreading amuna, books like this, content like this. If you've got access to money and you want to know where to place it, promote podcasts like this. Use your dollars to sponsor this message so that it goes far and wide, so that people in the world will learn about this concept of amuna and start to embrace or learn about their creator and work on that relationship so they don't have to falter, so they don't have to end up in a really bad place. If that's what you're doing with your money, you're investing in podcasts such as this one by sponsoring or other similar podcasts, or buying books and sending them out to your friends and your family, you are on the right track and you are saying with your actions, Hashem, look, I know that you exist and I know that you are the one responsible for the money that's in my bank. That type of individual passes the test of Amuna and wealth with flying colors. He is not negatively affected by sudden abundance, whether material or spiritual, my friends. We should all be wealthy beyond our means. But more importantly, we should be primed and prepared with the right amount of amuna to know that there is a creator. So when we become that vessel prepared to receive that wealth, that wealth will remain. That vessel will be strong enough to retain it and make sure that it's utilized in a proper way. Have an amazing Shabbat, my friends. We'll shout again on Sunday. 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.