Episode 111 - Are You So Poor That All You Have Is Money?

Send us a text

Have you ever wondered if your relationship with money is fundamentally flawed? The Trust Factor podcast explores a profound paradigm shift in how spiritually-centered individuals should approach wealth, offering a direct challenge to modern society's obsession with accumulation.

Money, when properly understood, requires distribution across three domains: your personal needs, the needs of those who depend on you, and the excess that can benefit your broader community. This spiritual framework powerfully contrasts with contemporary attitudes, where hoarding wealth has become normalized despite its emotional and spiritual toll.

The ancient sages approached their work lives with remarkable intentionality—opening their shops only until they earned their daily bread, then dedicating remaining hours to spiritual growth, family, and community. Today, we've completely inverted this wisdom, sacrificing everything meaningful on the altar of endless accumulation. As the podcast pointedly observes, some become "so poor that all they have is money."

Perhaps most revolutionary is the teaching about giving: when you provide for others, you should thank them for the opportunity to fulfill your spiritual obligation, not expect their gratitude. This complete reorientation transforms charity from a self-congratulatory act into a humble recognition of your role as merely a temporary steward of divine resources.

Ready to transform your relationship with wealth and discover the freedom that comes from understanding money's true purpose? Listen now and learn how true abundance comes not from what you accumulate, but from how faithfully you distribute what you've been entrusted with.

Support the show

Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
Good morning everybody and welcome to the
Trust Factor, the podcast thatguarantees your success when you
implement its divine teachings.
We are into a discussion aboutmoney, about wealth, about how
somebody who has trust in hiscreator manages their money or
views their money, the moneythat's given to them.
We go to work, we make aneffort and we are given money in

(00:21):
exchange.
That's the transaction thatmoney is.
We've just said should be splitup into three different
compartments.
One compartment is for yourneeds, the other compartment is
for the needs of those whodepend on you.
And the third compartment isthe excess.
It's the savings, it's theinvestment portfolio, it's the
real estate, it's all the excessthat you've kept aside, that

(00:42):
you've amassed, or that we alltry and spend our lives trying
to amass.
You know, once upon a time, myfriends, this idea of amassing
wealth was not an idea.
It did not exist.
What people did was they wentto work, and I'm talking about
our sages over here, I'm talkingabout righteous people who are
responsible for the Torah thatwe have today.
These people were workingpeople, they had jobs, they were

(01:05):
shoemakers and blacksmiths andthey did all the same things
that we do today.
They had to generate an income,but the way they did it was
very different than the way weoperate today.
They knew what their livelihoodrequired of them.
They understood how much theyneeded in terms of a budget.
They understood how much theyhave coming in and how much

(01:25):
needs to go out.
They knew their expenses forthe day and what they would do
is they would go in to theirshop, they would open up their
business and they would conductbusiness until the very point at
which they've made their dailyearnings, and that was it.
Then they would shut down theirstore and they would go and
they would learn from this Torah.
They would grow, invest theirtime and energy in their

(01:47):
personal spiritual growth andwell-being of theirs and their
family and their community.
That's what they did.
They focused on themselves andtheir community.
The work was just a means to anend.
I know I need to make $200today to survive.
I go to work, I open up mystore.
God sends me the customer inthe morning Wonderful, I'm done
with my $200.
I close up the store and Ileave the rest for my neighbor

(02:09):
to make you understand.
That's how they functioned.
If I needed $300 a day, that'swhat my limit was and if it
didn't come to me in the morning, it came to me in the afternoon
.
Then that means that I'd haveto stay until the afternoon in
order to make my daily bread.
But that's how they operated.
Once their daily amount wasacquired, they would lock the

(02:30):
store and they would continue todo the things that were a means
to an eternity, not a means toan end.
Today, my friends, we have itexactly 180 degrees the opposite
.
We do it exactly the oppositeof the way that they did it back
then.
Today, we live to work, we liveto amass wealth.
We try our best to continue tomake more and more and more, and
we do it at all the expenses ofour growth, our personal and

(02:54):
spiritual growth, our family'sgrowth, our community and all
the other things that are somuch more important than dollars
and cents, so much more.
I once heard an individual saythat he had met people who were
so poor, so destitute, that allthey had was money.
Understand, friends, that'swhere we are today.

(03:16):
We understand that you are thewealthiest, you are the most
complete.
If all you have is money, it'ssuch a backwards way of thinking
, my friends.
If all you have is money, it'ssuch a backwards way of thinking
, my friends, let's continue.
He says how do we err, how dowe make mistakes?
What are the mistakes that wemake when it comes to money?
It says as follows the foolishperson thinks that all the money

(03:37):
that the Creator has decreedfor him to receive, in other
words, his entire earnings, isincome for his own food and the
maintenance of his own body.
You understand, we talked aboutthis yesterday, my friends.
We said clearly that there areso many people that when you ask
them for a dollar, they becomeevil, they become wicked, they

(03:59):
feel like you are attacking them.
They go on the defense.
That's because they'vesubscribed to what Rabbeinu
Bachia is telling us right herethat everything I earn, every
single dollar, is for me, and ifyou think that I'm going to
part with it for somebody elseor some other cause, you are
sorely mistaken.
That is the flavor of the day,my friends, and clearly this was

(04:24):
the flavor back 900 years ago.
So things may not have changedas much as I may think they have
.
This still continues to persisttoday.
Thus it says in his desire toincrease his fortune, he hastens
to amass more and more moneyand exerts extra effort for it,
and then he hoards it.

(04:46):
In truth, however, the extramoney he earns may not be
earmarked for him at all.
You hear this You're working sohard to amass all of this
wealth and it may not even befor you.
You're not giving it to yourspouse, you're not giving it to
your children, you're not givingit to your community, you're
just hoarding it as much aspossible.

(05:06):
You want to see that numberincrease every day.
That number goes up and up andup and every day.
Multiple times a day, you'recounting your money.
How much do I have?
You know the things that areimportant to us.
We count, right?
We're always thinking about ourchildren.
We're thinking about each andevery one of you.
You have five kids.
You don't just think about oneor two, you think about each and

(05:28):
every one of those childrenbecause they're important to you
, right?
That's a way of counting them,by thinking about them, by
contemplating them.
When all you're doing, 12 timesa day, is getting onto your
banking app, looking on itonline and seeing how much is in
there, how much went out today?
How much came in today?
Am I on track to becoming thebillionaire that I expect to be?
If that's all you're doing,what that's telling you is
that's the only thing thatmatters to you, because you've

(05:50):
occupied all of your time withit.
And what does he say over here?
He gets into a pretty extremeexample.
He says that this might even befor in other words, all the
money that you're getting may befor your wife's future husband
you hear this the man that shewill marry after you're gone.
Or for his unforeseen murderer,the guy who's going to come and

(06:14):
kill him and take possession ofhis wealth Unbelievable.
Or for his greatest enemy, towhom it may go when he loses it.
This person does not realizethat all his work is just in
vain.
You're amassing and amassingand amassing and eventually it's
going to be swept out fromunderneath you.
Either it's going to go tosomebody that is undeserving in

(06:38):
your eyes but deserving in God'seyes, and it's going to go
there whether you like it or not, or it may even go, like he
says here, worst case scenarioto the last person on the planet
that you would want it to golike God forbid your murderer,
or your wife's future husband.
Right, he would be far betteroff generously sharing his
surplus with those who need itso that he would get credit for

(07:02):
his kindness.
How much smarter would it be foryou to recognize that when you
leave this world, you takenothing with you and you can
enjoy the fruits of your labortoday and others who rely on you
can enjoy this life today.
You don't have to hoard it,it's coming to you.
If it's coming to you, it's notjust for you, it's for those

(07:25):
who are around you, it's foryour friends, your family, your
community.
You have to share the wealth.
It's not just for you to hoard,and if that's what you think,
you're going to be really upsetwhen the time comes for you to
recognize and you may even beliving.
It doesn't have to be whenyou're dead.
It can be swept out from underyou while you're still alive.

(07:51):
We see that all the time.
How many times, god forbid,divorces happen and the wives or
the husbands end up taking awayhalf of the fortune.
The guy works forever and everand risks and sacrifices his
family, time and his communityand being a well-rounded
individual at the expense ofamassing massive amounts of
wealth.
The wife comes along or thehusband comes along later on,
after this guy finally says youknow what I'm done.

(08:13):
I'm retired, I've put in a good20, 30 years to amass this
wealth.
It's come at a very high priceand then she says bye-bye and
she takes half of his wealth.
Tens or hundreds of millions ofdollars is swept away from the
guy or, even worse, he spendsuntold fortunes and stress and

(08:34):
anxiety and depression fightingthat very same thing that she
should not take what is comingto her.
You understand, friends, what'sit all for.
What's it all for?
We're breaking our backs, we'remaking ourselves crazy trying
to manage this concept of wealthand we're doing it all wrong.
The right way to do it isrecognize that it wasn't all

(08:56):
given to you for you.
You are a steward.
You are safeguarding his moneyfor the people who rely on you.
That includes friends, familyand community.
My friends, that is part of thereason equal part of the reason
why you are being given anywealth at all.
Now let's move forward and seewhat he says here.

(09:17):
Actually, he says somethingvery interesting.
Hopefully we'll get into it ina minute.
He says the following, which isunbelievable the third error
that a foolish person in theposition of supporting others
makes is that, although he isgiving the provisions he
received to their rightfulowners.
In other words, I'm givenmillions of dollars and my job

(09:38):
is to support my children, myparents, my spouse, my extended
family, my community members,all these different
opportunities for me to take themillions of dollars that I've
been trusted with to go and makethe world better for everybody
around me.
I'm doing that.
I'm doing it.
That's what he says.
I was given the money and nowI'm doing the right thing.

(09:59):
I'm giving it to their rightfulowners, but he reminds them of
the goodness towards them indoing this, as if he were the
one who provided them with theirprovisions and sustains them
and was the source of thiskindness towards them.
He expects them to thank himand praise him profusely for
this and to act submissivelytowards him.

(10:21):
On this account, he becomesarrogant, his heart becomes
proud and conceited and heneglects to fulfill his debt of
gratitude to God for grantinghim this privilege of
distributing provisions toothers.
You understand, when you givemoney to charity, when you give
a poor person a meal, you thinkyou're doing that person a favor

(10:42):
.
In reality, that person isdoing you the favor, that person
, by taking the money thatyou've been given to provide for
their own basic necessities.
In doing so, that individualallows you the mitzvah, the deed
of charity.
That person enables you toseparate from the money that
you've been entrusted with inorder to give it to those in

(11:06):
need, and he is in need and he'senabling you to do the right
thing with that money.
You need to say thank you tohim.
When you give him the money tosupport his family, you have to
say thank you to him.
Thank you for allowing me theopportunity to support you with
the money that God gave me.
Who am I?
I'm just a guy like you.
I got up and I made an effort,and my effort resulted in X,

(11:29):
yours resulted in Y.
At the end of the day, my jobis to make sure that I take care
of you, my brothers and sisters.
I have an obligation to doingthat, and that's what I'm going
to do with the money that hegave me.
I'm no different than you.
I could just as easily havebeen in your position, but God,
in his kindness, gave me thisopportunity.

(11:51):
I'm acknowledging it.
I'm going to say thank you toGod and I'm going to say thank
you to you for allowing me to beable to do the act of charity.
Have an amazing day, my friends.
We'll continue tomorrow.