Where Do You Place Your Faith?

You can be as secular as they come and still believe someone is watching over you

Episode 14 · June 22, 2023

Faith and trust in the Creator

The Truth Hurts · Episode 14 · audio in Hebrew

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The conversation

If someone ever told you that you can't start working on yourself because you don't have faith, that's simply not true. You already trust basic things every day without noticing: that the traffic light will work, that your paycheck will land in your account. Gili explains that faith (*emunah*) isn't a trait you either have or don't have; it's a muscle you have to train. You can be completely far from religious law and still feel closer to the spirit of the Jewish message than someone who keeps the commandments without understanding why.

The truth

  • Faith isn't a trait you either have or don't have. It's like a muscle, and you can and should train it.

  • Even a person who doesn't call themselves a believer relies every day on a basic faith: that the traffic light will work, that the paycheck will come in.

  • Gili moved from calling it the universe to calling it the Creator, once she understood that there's a difference between Creation and the one who created it.

  • You can be completely far from religious law and still feel closer to the spirit of the Jewish message than people who keep the commandments without understanding why.

  • The resistance to the words the Creator comes, the way she sees it, from religion entering the political system and from people trying to claim ownership of Him.

  • You can't believe only in yourself. Every person is made up of so many things that it's worth putting trust in something bigger.

Questions and answers

What made the subject of faith come up in this episode in the first place?

A woman who had been wanting to come in for a session for about two years said that she reads Gili and listens to her but feels she doesn't have the faith it takes to come for a session, and that's what led Gili and Tal to choose faith as the subject of this episode.

Why did I move from feeling that the world just exists on its own to feeling that someone is running it? What took me from "it's just the universe" to "there's a Creator"?

For a long time she called it the universe, until she understood that there's a difference: the universe has a Creator, it isn't just the universe on its own. From that moment the words changed, but what she meant stayed exactly the same.

What does Gili say: can I not keep the commandments and still believe that someone is watching over me?

She says there are two separate tracks: the outward conduct, which includes markers like keeping the commandments, and the faith in the heart. Gili says the two don't necessarily line up. You can keep the commandments without that fully matching your inner faith, and for her the inner faith matters more than the outward markers.

What does it even mean that there is divine providence (*hashgacha pratit*)?

Gili explains that as far as she's concerned, divine providence means taking full responsibility for your life: the understanding that once the world has a Creator, nothing happens by chance, not even a leaf falling, and that every event, even the hardest one, is in the end for the good.

Tell me, could it be that if I believe someone is watching over me, I'll try less hard in life? Or is that actually what gives me the strength to make the effort?

The deeper the faith, the less need there is for action and effort to get things, meaning less striving. At the same time Gili notes that because we live in the world of action, a certain amount of effort is still needed. It just keeps getting smaller as the faith deepens.

What negative beliefs did Tal recognize in herself in her own healing process?

Tal identifies mainly two beliefs that keep coming back in her: the feeling that "nobody sees me" and the feeling that "nobody believes me." According to Gili, at the root of beliefs like these there is usually a deeper and very human belief: the feeling that "I'm not good enough."

Gili's original episode description

In this episode Gili and Tal take on fundamental questions that circle around the thing we call faith.

What are your beliefs?

How do they shape your life?

Do I even believe, and in what?

Faith is really like a muscle. The more you believe and the more you practice it, the stronger it gets.

This is the time to ask yourself: what am I putting my trust in?

What makes me resist?

Do I have to meet certain standards to have a conversation with the Creator, or is there room for both at once?

And there's more! How and where divine providence comes into the picture.

Listen closely, and maybe you'll get to know your own faith muscle and learn how to keep it in shape.

About the podcast

Listening to The Truth Hurts feels like sitting in on a healing session.

The truth can hurt. It’s right there in the name. But we’re not here to cause pain. Quite the opposite.

In each episode, two women sit down for an honest conversation: an Emotional Healer and her client.

We talk about healing and consciousness, faith and science, the body and soul, personal growth, energy, and different approaches to healing. Above all, we face the truth no one says out loud: everything around us is upside down.

Is this podcast for you?

  • You want to hear the truth, and you’re ready to face it. (Yes, those are two different things.)
  • You want to gain insight and improve your quality of life.
  • You want to make a change.
  • You want a deeper understanding of the laws of the universe.
  • You want to live a healthy life in body and soul.
  • You want to take away something you can carry with you for life.

You don’t need any prior knowledge. You only need the desire to explore a wide range of ideas and discover practical guidance for living.

Listen and get in touch

Gili Man Wolner, Emotional Healer. Helping you heal and grow through Jewish wisdom.

Have a question about an episode? Send a WhatsApp message to +972 50-681-0611 (messages only).

Listen to The Truth Hurts (in Hebrew).

Tal Eckerling, co-host: Website · Facebook · Instagram