Rabbi Evan Moffic starts the episode by introducing key numbers in the Bible. He discusses how it relates to our lives. There is significance in these numbers and multiples of numbers. Rabbi Moffic discusses how we can put numbers on everything, how they are used to keep score and reveal the truth.
Announcer 0:02
Welcome to the Solomon Success Show where we explore the timeless wisdom of King Solomon and the Bible as it relates to business and investing false prophets and get rich quick schemes are everywhere. Let’s not be distracted by these. Instead, let’s go to the source, the eternal principles that create a life of peace, power and prosperity. Here’s our host, Jason Hartman.
Jason Hartman 0:32
Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Solomon success show biblical principles for business and investing. Today we have one of our clients as a guest host, and that is Rabbi Evan malefic. So I hope you enjoy the interview.
Rabbi Evan Moffic 0:47
Welcome to the Solomon success Show. I’m Rabbi Evan malefic. I’m a friend and client of Jason, and he was kind enough to extend the opportunity to co host the show. I’m an author and a rabbi and beliefs passionately in the message the Bible for people of all faiths. It is the best guide that we have not only to a life of success, but of meaning and happiness, and it is our most ancient source of wisdom. And if there’s any area of life where we need wisdom, it’s in the quest for wealth and happiness. We don’t need any more get rich quick schemes are three steps to perfection in the perfect portfolio. We need true time tested principles. We need wisdom, we need insight we need guidance from real experience and the Jewish tradition and all this I’m speaking as a Rabbi venema speaking about universal principles. These principles have worked for 4000 years, they’ve been time tested. They have great insight for who we are today in a way. I like to think of it this as ancient wisdom for modern problems and modern goals and modern dreams, that we’re taking the best of the past. And helping it lead us into the future. And so this week’s topic is the power of numbers. I don’t know if that sounds too sexy. And maybe that turns off any non engineers, but bear with me for a little bit. In real estate, we are supposed to know our numbers. And why is that and there’s so many numbers we need to know there’s the profit, there’s the price or appreciation percentage cash on cash. Just Just look at Jason’s video on reading a pro forma, there’s so much there. But numbers are our way of keeping score. How are we doing in terms of profit? numbers also reveal the truth. They give us a kind of unfiltered way of seeing how we’re doing in terms of our investment in real estate. And Jason is interviewed, he probably maybe you’ve heard it, he’s interviewed Frank Allen le on the creating wealth show who wrote this amazing book about all these numbers you need to know. But knowing our numbers helps us become better investors. They keep us grounded. They give us ways of measuring, they give us ways of improving. And this is not just true in real estate. This is true in life. I mean, think of grades, we get a certain percentage and we say, okay, we want to get a higher score. If you’re a student, you get the LSAT, you get this score, you want to raise it to that score. If you’re in business, there’s this great, you get surveys all the time, give us between one and 10. What was our ranking between one and 10? how likely are you to recommend us to another person that’s the famous Net Promoter Score, which is used in business a lot today. So numbers are everywhere, everywhere, so we need to be aware of them. But numbers in terms of real estate numbers are not just about performance. Numbers also are about luck and superstition. For example, if you go to many apartment buildings or hospitals, there’s no 13th floor. Even though the 14th floor is really the 13th floor, but it won’t be called the 13th floor. Because 13 is seen as unlucky. In China. The number eight is very lucky, because the Chinese word for prosperity is I think also the word for Ate. I believe that’s one of the reasons why. In fact, I just read an article about a Chinese developer who bought a office building in the business district of Sydney, Australia. And he paid $88,888,888. Clearly, he believes in number eight is lucky. Now those of us who aren’t engineers or computer scientists, and I know there’s a lot of engineers who listen to this show. But those of us who aren’t engineers, we may feel allergic to numbers. And for those of us who are people faith, and I know there are lots of you who listened to this show, we may feel that that the world of numbers in the world of spirituality and faith are kind of at odds with each other. But that’s not true. The Bible, in some ways, is obsessed with numbers. It talks about numbers all the time. Numbers are part and parcel of how we interpret and understand the message of the Bible. In Judaism, there’s a very interesting thing I imagine many of you probably have not heard of this. I didn’t really hear of it until I went to rabbinical school, it’s a way of interpreting the Bible called Gamal Tria. And what it is, is, in Hebrew, every letter has a numeric value. So the first letter of the alphabet has, Aleph has the value one, the second letter bet has the value two, and so forth. And then when you get to 10, it goes 1020 3040. And so there’s 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, they all have a certain numeric value. Now, what that means is every word in Hebrew, and so of course, the Bible the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, every word has a numeric value, you take the letters, and you add up the number to add up the sum of each letter in the word. And what that does is it allows us to draw connections between different words. So we can say one word and say, Hey, it adds up to 120. And another word that adds up to 120. So they must have some kind of similarity. And there’s dozens of examples of this in the Bible. One interesting example is the word for ladder when Jacob has his dream of a ladder between heaven and Earth, the word is sulam. And it adds up to 130, I believe. And the Hebrew word for mountain for Sinai also adds up to 130. And so the rabbinic interpreters draw this analogy that Mount Sinai was that place where God built that ladder between heaven and earth. And when the Israelites were at Mount Sinai, God came down on a ladder. It’s just a beautiful way of sort of helping, elucidate and illuminate different biblical texts. Now Be that as it made power of numbers, and helping us interpret the Bible is important. But the Bible also gives us a real insight it helps us understand why numbers are important. In fact, there are five Hebrew verbs for counting. And each of them with those same verbs also have other meanings that include prominence, power, and prestige. That to count gives us power. We’re over something, you know, you may have heard in business, what can be measured can be managed and what can’t be measured can’t be managed. And so counting something helps us manage it gives us power over it. And numbers help us give a sense of ourselves, you probably heard that phrase net worth, that we have a certain number. Now that’s kind of a crass way of understanding our value. But we can give numbers to all kinds of things we can give numbers to how we’re feeling between one and five. How are you feeling between one and 10? how satisfied you are with these experiences, numbering everything is part of a key to success. It may seem crass sometimes, and certain things can’t be numbered right there. There are certain experiences that are that are beyond numbers, but in many areas of life, numbers matter. And so when we can grow better in our understanding of the significance of numbers, we will be better interpreters to the Bible, have a better understanding the Bible and also better investors and ultimately, perhaps more effective human beings. So what I want to give you today Just a taste of some of the key numbers of the Bible. And we can ask ourselves a couple questions. What are the key numbers in the Bible? And why do they matter? Do they have any universal importance outside of the Bible? Can they give us any insight into today? You know, there’s certain numbers that you’ve probably heard. What’s that the golden ratio, which is a certain ratio between how we symmetry in our face I think it’s a I don’t remember but somebody analyzed a Denzel Washington’s face has that perfect ratio. In investing. There’s Fibonacci sequence that certain predicts certain price movements, there are certain numbers that that really work and helping address and give us insight into certain issues. But anyways, let’s look at some of the numbers of the Bible. The first key number to know is 7077 to create number. I’m reading a biography right now this is of perhaps The most important Jewish leader, perhaps one of the most important religious leaders of the 20th century, you may have never heard of him. His name was the Rabbi Menachem schneerson. And he essentially created a whole new movement in Judaism, if you ever been in New York City, and you see people in black hats and beards on the street, they are very likely followers of the rebbi Menachem schneerson. And he followed a line of leaders of a group within Judaism called Habad. And he was a seventh rebbi of Habad. And probably the last there’s really no successor. He was so successful that he built this movement and no one individual can succeed him. And he was the seventh in that line. But seven, think of seven days of creation, seven days of the week, and seven represents wholeness, Completion, fulfillment. It’s a beautiful number in that way, and it reappears so many times in the Bible. Of course, we know in the book of Genesis, the creation story happens in seven days in the heat Hebrew text of Genesis chapters one through three, the word good and God saw that it was good, is used seven times. The first verse of the entire Bible contains seven Hebrew words. The second verse contains 14 Hebrew words. And it keeps going until the account of the seventh day of creation contains 35 words seven times five. The word God appears in the first three chapters of the book of Genesis 35 times seven times five, the word Earth appears 21 times seven times three. The entire passage the entire story of creation in the Hebrew Bible contains 469 words, what is 469? Seven times 67. Who, what a pattern so if we see that number seven, we know it’s revealing something Now it’s not just in Judaism, that seven matters. Seven Wonders of the World. You’ve heard that. Now there’s eight wonders the world, right? But seven, we see seven in so many different places. Jason once did an episode, it’s on the Solomon success show way in the back earlier about the seven streams of income. That’s the ideal sources of income and that’s in Ecclesiastes. He’s Ecclesiastes, he’s talks about these seven sources of income, a phone number, not counting the area code, but phone numbers are seven digits, perhaps are we were able to remember seven, eight is too much. But seven is sort of the limit of what we can remember there’s something about the number seven, seven year economic cycles go by I talked about this in an earlier episode, Joseph C, seven years of feasts seven years of famine that these cycles repeat over seven years. Now, what does this mean for us as investors and as people of faith, I’m not quite positive, you know, this. This is one of those questions. And perhaps we should strive to get seven streams of income. Perhaps we should purchase seven houses if we’re an income property investor. But perhaps we should just be aware of these patterns and be aware of where they exist in life and look for those numbers. Look for those patterns so that we can kind of not predict the future, but at least get an understanding of what the future might look like. There’s a great quotation about history doesn’t always repeat itself, but it usually rhymes. I think George Santayana said something like that. There’s a certain pattern, and seven is at the heart of that. The second important number that I want us to think about is the number three. Now, of course, you probably know three already if you’re Christian, the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost, the Trinity, right, that’s a core concept. In Judaism. We have God Torah in Israel. are kind of the pillars of the Jewish faith. The Torah is the word of God comes from God. And the Torah is the Constitution of the people of Israel, the Jewish people. There’s also the six pointed star in Judaism, which symbolizes three points symbolized God tour and Israel. The other three points symbolize creation, Revelation and redemption, which are three key theological concepts. Why is three so important? Well, it’s easy to remember, you know, gives us a certain kind of almost like a triangle, it helps us see three key points. In real estate Jason has talked about the three dimensions of real estate investors, or an income property investors to put it in the more proper term. There’s the price, the buying price in the future potential. That’s one part of our dimension of our investment. The second dimension our investment is the mortgage. mortgage is an asset. Now we’re not that this is not the creating wealth show, which Jason does, and it’s just so good. Brilliant, but the mortgage is another part of the asset that we have this protection against inflation, a way of reducing our debt. So it’s an asset rather than a liability. And the third dimension of real estate investing is the cash flow, the rental income. So these three dimensions of real estate investing, so three, appears over and over again, we probably all have different examples of three in our lives. And I think that there’s something in human nature, about three, that maybe it’s easy to remember three points about something. Maybe it gives us a sense of wholeness and completion, kind of like the number seven but more simplistic version, but there’s something about three, and again, that also appears in the Bible over and over again, the three patriarchs of Judaism, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I already talked about God, Torah and Israel, the three major sections of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah, five books of Moses, the prophet, It’s the Navy and the writings that ketuvim that includes Esther Psalms, that three major sections of the Hebrew Bible. There are three monotheism in the world today, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and, of course there are different religions that fall under that. But three, three appears in so many different places three branches of government, executive, legislative, judicial, three, three is built into many different patterns in the world. And it really starts in the Hebrew Bible. The third number again, three. Third number I want to look at is the number four for just one more than three. What’s the significance of four? Well, part of it is 40. The Israelites journey in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses goes on top of the mountain for 40 days. There’s four matriarchs, there are four cups of wine and a Passover Seder there. The Israelites are slaves for 400 years for is all over the place for also relates to real estate. Remember the famous after the Civil War, there was a promise to freed slaves of 40 acres and a mule. There’s something about the number 40. It gives us a sense of gravity, there’s a gravity TOSS TO THE NUMBER 40. Perhaps it represents a generation, or a big chunk of a lifetime. You know, many rabbis I don’t know about in other professions, or many rabbis believe a full career is 40 years. Let’s say they’re ordained Rabbi 27 and they retire at 67. Now, I don’t believe in the concept of retirement. So that’s a conversation for another day. But that is a significant career, an era it’s more than a generation, but it’s a definitive period of time. In some ways. It represents an ushering in of a new era after 40 years. I don’t know what people count as generations now. It’s more like 20 years, so two generations. And so in some ways, it’s almost a new beginning. We can start over at 40 nothing Reason 40 is so important is there’s a fullness in it. 40 is longer than a month. It gives a little bit of an extended time. But it also It tests us. Right when Moses goes on top of the mountain for 40 days, that’s when the people build the golden calf. So if we can get through 40, we’ve achieved something important. Now I want to go to the last important number. Now there are other important numbers, but this number relates to 40. It doesn’t relate so much to seven, although seven times 10 is 70. And 70 was considered number of years in good life. But that’s the number 10 and 10. Jason, of course has the 10 commandments of real estate investing we have the 10 commandments of in the Hebrew Bible, but 10 it gives us a sense of completion of fullness. And it’s a good way of organizing our minds. When we think one of the things that Jason teaches us To think in ratios, and 10 lend itself to lots and lots of ratios, you know, 10 to one odds, you hear Grant cardones talk about 10 X. It’s kind of a convenient way of emphasizing exponential power and growth. But 10 also just gives us a way of thinking broadly about numbers, it gives us a good measuring stick, perhaps you’ve heard of the 8020 rule. And of course, 80 is 10 times 820 is 10 times two, the 8020 rule is that 80% of our results come from 20% of our efforts, or 80% of our sales comes from 20% of our people, the 8020 rule goes applies in so many different areas of life. But 10 is a good kind of measuring stick. It gives us an easy way to think about our numbers. Now, let’s step back for a second and think about a full human being. The Bible is not interested or at least the Hebrew Bible. It’s not interested in just the soft areas. of life. It’s not just about what we believe it’s about what we do. And what we do in life is often governed, and can be improved by numbers. So knowing our numbers, knowing our numbers in real estate investing, knowing our numbers and how we live our lives, how many hours we spend with our family, how many hours we spend at work, how many hours we spend at recreation, understanding how we use our time, gives us a much better sense of how we are living. I once was doing a fundraiser and I decided to take a risk and did this, I thought was a bold, audacious move of saying, what’s the most important part, the most important thing in your house? And I went around, I was raising money for the synagogue and people, you know, gave all kinds of different answers. And I said, No, no, no, none of that’s true. The most important thing in this house is your checkbook. And everyone kind of laughed and they maybe they thought I was being crass. And I kind of said the reason that’s true is how we spend our money reveals what we value And money is of course based on numbers. So what we do with our resources, our money, and even more importantly our time, that reveals what we value. And the way we calculate that value, the way we quantify that value and give us a measurement is through numbers. So think about your numbers. God reveals the world through the use of the number seven. God incorporates all kinds of different numbers into the Bible. So in our own lives and our own investing in our own relationships in our work, look at our numbers, know our numbers, and will live a happier more meaningful life. I wish all of you Shalom, talk to you next time.
Jason Hartman 20:41
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