Episode 178 - Atheists: Lack of Torah Study

If you’ve been feeling spiritually “stuck,” this might be why.

Elul always feels like a wake-up call to me - because the new year isn’t just about goals, it’s about relationship.

The biggest shift I’ve seen?  When I stopped acting like everything was random and started speaking to my Creator like He’s actually listening.

That one change changes everything:

less chaos in my head

more clarity in my life

more peace when things feel uncertain

You don’t have to have it all figured out. 

Just take one honest step back toward Him.

That’s where the breakthrough starts. 

#Elul  #RoshHashanah  #FaithJourney #thetrustfactorpodcast #JewishWisdom

Transcript

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The problem with a lot of these people who call themselves atheists is that they haven't studied and they don't learn Torah. And yet they've drawn their own conclusions. It's the arrogance of our society. It's the arrogance that comes with having achieved so much success, material success in this world that we think it's my wisdom, it's my strength. They got me here. I don't need a Torah. I don't need a guide. I don't need a God. I know it all. I know how it started. I can't explain it to you, but I know that it all is nothing. It's all random, it's all coincidence. What a baseless argument and such an easy one to make because you don't have to substantiate it. So when I asked the obvious question, what was your rabbi's name? Who taught you Torah? Who taught you Gomorrah? That's where the conversation came to an end. The trust factor is a ticket to a better life. The trust factor shows you how to get through the life. Good morning. Welcome to another episode of the Trust Factor Podcast. I hope you had a meaningful Shabbat. We are now into the month of Elul. This is the month where we prepare for the new year, the Jewish new year that is going to be upon us. Before you know it, it's going to come very quickly. And I was just reading forward a little bit over here, trying to figure out what we were going to talk about today. And it's very apropos because this is the preparation, and it's all about speaking to your creator, having that relationship. If you don't have a relationship with your creator, you're missing out on life. Bottom line, very simple. You are missing out. There is a key to unlock success in this life, and it is speaking to your creator. There is a creator who loves you and is ready to do everything that you need, that you desire, has all of the resources available to give to you and wants to give to you. But you have to ask. You have to be aware of where it's coming from. He doesn't want you to think that it's coming from some random place, from some random person, that it's you perhaps who's in charge. He wants you to recognize that he exists and that he runs the world. And once you do, why don't you foster that relationship with him? Suddenly the pipe, the chef of the abundance, starts to open up. Why is it apropos? Because right now we're about to start asking for the entirety of our upcoming year. That's why Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are so powerful. Because Rosh Hashanah specifically is the day when all of that is decreed. So we have to work on ourselves and that relationship to talk to him on a daily basis, to tell him what we want and to show him that we're willing to do the heavy lifting and the hard work so that we justify all of those requests that we make of him. That's what we're going to talk about a little bit today. So it's definitely apropos. If we're going to equate it to anything, it's like getting the ear of President Trump, the most powerful person on planet Earth. You now have his ear. He's now looking at you and saying, I'm here. I have every tool at my disposal to give you. What do you need me to do for you? Which person would not take that opportunity to ask of him all of the things that you need or that you want? This is it. Now, the more real the creator is in your life, the stronger that relationship is, and the more content you are because you are in a relationship of give and take. You're seeing his hands in your life. If you don't know what I'm talking about, if you are so removed from your own spirituality and your own soul and connecting back to your creator, then this might sound hokey to you. And I understand it. It sounded hokey to me not long ago, 20 years ago, before I started to realize that there is a creator and that he runs the world and that he loves me and he runs my life. I too thought that it was all coincidence. It was all happenstance, it's all random, it's all me. It's such a terrible, terrible way to exist. There is no safety, there is no clarity, there is no purpose. It is all just the here and now. I was talking to somebody online who was commenting on one of my posts. And you think about it, you think about the comments that they throw out there, they believe, or at least they think they believe, that everything is random, that all of creation came into being how? By random rocks slamming into each other. That's what he said. Those were his words. That this whole random world came into being with rocks. And depending on how many rocks hit the world and where they landed, would have determined the outcome in the world and the perfection of the world that we have today. The other day, yesterday, I was sitting in Shul. There was a tiny, tiny little spider in the corner, and I pointed it out to my son. I said, take a look. I'm enamored by these types of things. People think I'm crazy. I know what I'm doing. I'm looking at this almost microscopic spider, tiny, tiny little thing, maybe altogether if you laid it out flat, it might be a half an inch long. And its body was maybe an eighth of an inch, tiny little bulb on its back, and its head barely perceptible. And it was sitting on this web, this intricate web that it had created, with these narrow, narrow, tiny little thread-like legs that were the thickness less than the thickness of a human hair, sitting on these webs that it created, and it can navigate these sticky webs like the best acrobat on planet Earth. It could zip across in a second at the slightest sign of danger, it bolts across this web into hiding. But when it's not, it's sitting there like a hunter, waiting for its prey, positioned perfectly and not moving, not even vibrating, so that it could hear, feel when something makes contact with its web. But the best part was that I'm looking for its head and I can't even see it. It's so tiny. And I said to my son, in that head, there's a brain that functions and operates that entire body and the nervous systems and all the nerve endings and all the senses that this little tiny spider has. And somebody's going to try and tell me that this world is random, that it all depends on where the rocks fell and how hard they hit and when they hit, that determines the outcome, the perfection of the four seasons of the things that fall from the sky, the fact that the sun rises and sets every day. There wasn't a day that it chose not to, the fact that this the earth is off-tilted, that it's tilted on its axis, and that tilt is precise and exacting, that if it was one degree more or one degree less, we would be either burnt to a crisp or turning to a giant ball of ice, all random. Just because this rock hit there and that rock hit here from some random explosion, people believe this stuff. So I suggested that if my watch, if I found it in a forest after hearing the explosion and seeing chunks of metal flying all over the place and landing into a certain spot, and as a result of all of those metal shards flying from that explosion, I had this perfect time-telling watch. You would think that I belong in a mental institution. And rightly so. It's not normal to anticipate things like that. And it doesn't matter how long it took for that watch to create, even if it happened over three billion years. It's impossible. It's like saying I took a jar of ink and I spilt it over a piece of paper and suddenly I picked it up and I shook it off, or a billion years later, there's unbelievable Shakespearean poetry on this piece of paper. People walk around every day believing this. And this individual on TikTok commented on one of my posts suggesting that very thing. And every time I said what I said now, he said nonsense. And the problem with a lot of these people who call themselves atheists is that they haven't studied. They don't learn Torah. They've never sat down with a qualified teacher to actually understand what the Torah teaches. And yet they've drawn their own conclusions. It's the arrogance of our society. It's the arrogance that comes with having achieved so much success, material success in this world that we think kohi vozum yeti. It's my wisdom, it's my strength. They got me here. I don't need a Torah. I don't need a guide. I don't need a god. I know it all. I know how it started. I can't explain it to you, but I know that it all is nothing. It's all random, it's all coincidence. What a baseless argument and such an easy one to make, because you don't have to substantiate it. You don't have to justify it. So when I asked the obvious question, tell me who you studied under. What was your rabbi's name? Who taught you Torah? Who taught you Gumara? That's where the conversation came to an end. He wanted to suggest that he learnt. But I asked him, under who? Give me the name. And that's where it all came to a head. Why? Because it's not true. They lie to themselves and dilute themselves because, God forbid, they should be held to an account. They should be held to a certain standard, or that they should even ask or inquire, because that might require of them that they do some heavy lifting and they're really intellectually lazy. That's the problem with society. On a separate note, just to add to that, I was speaking to my rabbi over Shabbat, and I gave him an example. If you've been online, there's a well-known Toronto Jew who used to own a very popular jewelry store called Omni Jewel Crafters. His name is Jack Berkowitz. And without getting into too much detail, because I read it very quickly, he went on a trip. After he landed at the airport, he got on one of these trams, and the tram jolted forward. And the person in front of him, I understood him to be an elderly man, fell down, hit the floor. Jack helped him to get back up. Jack is an observant Jew, an obvious, outwardly observant Jew with a keep on his head. He told this man that after he got up, that he should hold on to the handle next to where he's holding, that there's a place for him to stabilize himself. And this person looked back at him and said, I wouldn't hold anything that you are holding on to, obviously making reference to his keep on the fact that he was a Jew. That is the ignorance that is in this world. And then my rabbi says, Well, I just got back from a trip on the West Coast. And do you know what happened to us? Me and my beautiful family of young children were walking to synagogue on Saturday, and we just said hi to people as we were walking, being kind people, saying hi, wishing people a good day. And twice on two separate occasions, they were cursed out. They were given the finger by people walking and screaming at them, free Palestine. A Jewish religious family going to shul in Canada in 2026? Why would somebody even dream to be so ignorant, to be so base that they're not even willing to accept that this person may not be their enemy just by the dress, just by the fact that they're wearing one of these on their head, makes this person an enemy. That's today, my friends, it all comes from ignorance. It all comes from this lack of desire to learn. Because my learning, my asking of a question, my trying to understand if this person that I'm learning from online on TikTok is actually making a good argument or not, or if they're just filling my head with junk requires that I do the investment and the research. And most people are simply not willing to do that work because, like I've said, they're physically, intellectually, and emotionally lazy. That's the world we live in, my friends. Don't let that be you. You can't control other people. You can't control what they do and their response to any situation in the world. The only thing you can do is be the change that you want to see in the world. Make sure that you're educating yourself. Make sure you're asking questions. Don't ever accept things at face value because today, more than ever before in human history, we are living with the most well-oiled and well-funded propaganda machine ever in human history. That being the internet and social media. It is designed strictly to unleash unimaginable amounts of misinformation and disinformation. That's what it's doing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's designed to get us in trouble. Be aware, my friends. Ask questions. Don't take things at face value. Let's get into it. We talked about the four sons. You remember, we talked about the son, the ultimate son, who was doing the self-evaluation, wasn't waiting to get punished, wasn't waiting to be told by his father that he's doing wrong. He's so busy looking after his own actions. He's so busy assessing himself every day and coming to his father and saying, Dad, I assessed. And here's what I figured out. I did A, B, and C and it didn't work out for me. I don't know what I was thinking. It was so wrong. I should have done D, E, and F, like you told me. Hit that afterwards, and it worked out so well. A father like that is elated with that kind of child. He wishes that all of his children could be like that child because he knows that that child is setting himself up for success. The rest of them are walking around like these fools that I just finished telling you about, that are arrogant and ignorant, and they're just waiting to see the negative repercussions of their actions. And maybe when they feel the wrath of the choices that they've made, maybe they might make some changes. No guarantee. But it only will come if it comes after they get they hit rock bottom, after they get punished so many times and so severely that now they surrender, they throw their hands up in the air. You don't have to get there. Let's read. Imagine a loving son or daughter who thanks a parent profusely every single day for every little amenity that he or she receives. Imagine that the same son or daughter always confesses wrongdoing without having to be reprimanded. If that's not enough, the son or the daughter always seeks more and more of the parent's love. This child is proactive in their own personal growth and in their relationship with their parents. What more can a parent ask for? If this were your child, how in the world could you ever punish him? Of course you wouldn't. It's like I said on Friday. A parent doesn't punish a child like this. God doesn't punish a person who's constantly evaluating themselves. What's it like? There's an idea in Torah that says that whatever's judged in this world is not judged in that world. That's why God wants you to be judged in this world. And it's even better if you do the judging yourself. Because if you've done the judging, he can't judge you in that world. That's exactly what we just said. He sees that you're already aware, you're already awake, you're already in a relationship with him, and you're already bringing your problems to him. You're already bringing your faults to him and acknowledging them and asking him to be able to forgive you and guide you so that you don't make those mistakes again and that you only do the right things to be able to be the best version of yourself. How can I punish you? God says, You got this. I got your back. I wish the rest of my kids were like you. That's what it says. Of course, he wouldn't punish you. Who gets punished? The other fools, the guys like we just talked about, going around flipping people off because they look different, because they were told something on TikTok or on Facebook, and they took it hook, line, and sinker. You know, there's a guy running around right now. You may have seen this. My rabbi Rabbi Mizrachi is getting pretty popular on social media these days. And for good reasons, he's going around and he's challenging the woke, um, old right, or even the old left Nazi mentality that's out there. We have so many of these people who used to be uh of sound mind and knew the difference between right and wrong are now saying all these different sound bites just to get attention, just to become popular, to get the clicks and the likes, like the Nick Fuentes is of the world and all these other losers. And now they are all acknowledging that they were wrong in large part because of Rabbi Mizrachi, who's out there and saying the things that most pulpit rabbis will never say. This guy, Lucas Gage, I think his name was, he was the latest one, bald guy, ex-military guy. I was personally scared when I saw his videos of an unhinged, clearly neo-Nazi individual who was promoting acts of violence against the Jews. This guy was off his rocker, and I got really nervous. He made Dan Belzarian look like a joke. And now he's on uh interview with Rabbi Mizrafi explaining how the biggest part of the reason why he flipped, he no longer hates Jews. He now realizes that he hates the people who lied to him. He hates the junk that he's seeing online that's misguiding him. Why? Because he saw a rabbi, Rabbi Mizrafi, speaking negatively about liberal progressive Jews who are giving Jews a bad name. And he then realized they're not all the same. How can I paint all these people with the same broad brush? And so he flipped. And it's the exact opposite of the people that my rabbi encountered on his trip in the West Coast, or this individual on the bus with Jack Burkle. It's the exact opposite. These people are going to stay forever ignorant, forever in the dark. Why? Because they're not willing to ask a basic question. Kudos to this Lucas Gage. Kudos for him asking the question and then doing a real deep dive and analysis. And as a result of that, he offloaded so much hate, so much darkness came out of his heart and off of his chest. Why? Because he did the right thing. He did the heavy lifting. He asked, Is what I'm seeing true? Is what I'm hearing correct? Or am I being sold a faulty bill of goods? And he figured it out. I only wish the rest of the world will figure this out. We will continue this conversation, but this is all leading up to Rosh Hashanah. This is all leading up to fostering that relationship with your creator. Have a conversation with him. If it sounds crazy to you, do yourself a favor and try it out. It doesn't cost you anything. Do it in a dark room by yourself, lock the door, meditate, and have a conversation. And I will guarantee you that you will start to have that relationship. You will be introduced to a creator who's been waiting for you to reach out. And when you do, he will reciprocate. And when he reciprocates, step aside, my friend. Because as I've told you many times in season one, ftahli petah, keepchon shulmachat, he says, open up for me a hole the size of a needle, a little pinhole, meaning just speak to me, just advance towards me, just take on one small thing to say, God, I'm doing this to get close to you. I will open up for you an opening the size of an auditorium. Just imagine the relative comparison of a pinhole to an auditorium. Step aside, my friends, because you will see the hand of God in your life, and you will be better off for it, and everybody around you will be better off for it. Have an amazing day, my friends. We'll chat out Tuesday. 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 to the city.