The month of Av is upon us; a time of national mourning for the Jewish nation. During this month, more than five great national tragedies occurred throughout history, all on the same day. This strange occurrence is Heaven's way to get us to realize that there is more to life than natural occurrences. As in the past, we still fail to listen today. Therefore, I only find it right and fitting to share these words at this time.

We live in very dangerous times. Torah Judaism faces today a crisis unmatched since the days of the destruction of the Temple. The unsettled situation with the State of Israel is creating international anti-Semitism. Once there were peoples who never heard about or cared about Jews, now they all know about us and are being taught to hate us. Radical atheistic secularism is on its own jihad seeking to root out and destroy anything related to G-d and religion. This secular jihad knows no borders and has no boundaries. It permeates and infects everything it touches. It poisons the minds and contaminates the bodies of all who come in contact with its media propagated "new world order" philosophy.

Religion in general and the Torah specifically are being attacked from both inside and outside the Jewish nation. More Jews today have turned their backs on G-d and Torah that those who still seek to support and serve. On the surface, matters only look like they are getting worse.

In many religious circles, desperation has set in and messianic fervor is rising to a pitch. This fervor is the greatest danger of them all! We all believe that Mashiah will eventually come. Yet, the more and more desperate the situation becomes, the more and more desperate the people become. If Mashiah comes today or tomorrow and we are all miraculously saved from all our present disgusting circumstances, then all will be well and good. Yet, what if Mashiah continues to tarry, as he has for two thousand years? What if Mashiah does not come when we so desperately expect him and need him to magically redeem us? Are we ready to face the possibility that what we so desperately cry out for may not come when we want it and need it most?

We have to look at the facts. We must not allow ourselves the dangerous confusion between faith and desperation. Our Sages warn us not to rely on miracles, and in our desperation we are doing exactly that. Relying on a miracle of a sudden and miraculous redemption that may not come, is a sure way to kill faith in the hearts of countless desperate souls. This then is the great danger! Those who lose faith become bitter. They turn on what once they believed. The supporters and believers in Torah and Mashiah turn and become his most bitter enemies and opponents. This has already happened numerous times throughout history and it stands to happen again; this time on a national scale.

Let me be very forthcoming here. The redemption is not going to come when we expect it. The redemption is not going to come how we expect it. What is going to come is going to be almost completely unexpected. It will require of each of us the greatest fortitude and determination to survive. Each and every one of us will go through a period of lose and tribulation. This period is unavoidable. It is ordained and well under way. We have a long road yet before us and we had better get focused on the reality of this.

It is wonderful that messianic consciousness is spreading throughout the nation. It is dangerous that its spread is coupled with desperation for radical action. We can make it through this most turbulent of periods, yet we must face reality in order to do so. We must stop allowing ourselves to be distracted by all the fantasy myths we hold so dear and so desperately embrace. It is time for the sleeper to awaken.

Messianic rumors are running rampant. We hear stories that "this Rabbi said this" and "before Rabbi So-and-So died he revealed that." One Rabbi it is alleged saw Mashiah face-to-face and yet another received a message from him in a dream. Many of these stories are outright fabrication told by lying individuals with the specific intent of spreading false hope. They intend to inundate people with such lies that when none of them materialize then they will all lose hope, abandon the land and possibly (they hope) even abandon the Torah.

You must take all these stories and cast them into the rubbish. Discount them all and forget them all. If someone actually has something to say, then they will come forward personally and say it, directly. They will not need rumors to spread the information. They themselves will stand up publicly and make an announcement. So far, we have not seen any of this. Therefore, rest assured that everything, yes, everything that you hear spread in the name of this or that Rabbi is just a rumor, unless that Rabbi came out personally into the public arena publicly and declared it so. The rumors are merely false hopes maliciously spread with the intent to break hearts and destroy true faith.

This is what happens because we lack leaders to inspire us with leadership and faith. The Jewish people today have no viable leadership. Everyone, in every walk of Jewish life knows this. Religious leaders have been shown to be as petty and small as their secular counterparts. Real righteousness, wisdom and courage seem to be lost. The mighty lions that once headed the great schools of Torah learning and even the mighty Israeli army have all be declawed and defanged and now "meow" when they once roared. The world watches and laughs with glee.

All Israel watches and twists logic and spins truth to somehow find a justification to tolerate this deplorable state. Yet, there is no justification. Justifying the unjustifiable and tolerating the intolerable is what is so disgusting and deplorable. It only makes matters much worse when one refuses to see just how bad things really are. It makes matters all the worse when we knowingly see what is so horrible and try to spin it and say it is not so bad.

This same gutless and cowardly attitude is what led numerous souls to walk into the Nazi death camps to surrender to torture and death, rather than fight for life and survival. Are you ready for another Holocaust? You had better be! Because the way things are going now, the next one is inevitable and unavoidable. Its borders will know no bounds. It will strike at Jews worldwide, all because we do nothing tangible and real to stop it.

Pray all you want; this is really great and indeed powerful. But prayer is not the weapon needed to stop this onslaught. Prayers affect matters in Heaven, but it is our actions that affect matters here on Earth. Do not bother to pray if you are not willing to back up your prayers with proper righteous action. Prayer asks G-d to intervene on our behalf. This Heaven is ready and willing to do. Yet, we are Heaven's vessels. Heaven acts through us. Therefore, when we refuse to act and do what is necessary then we are in essence causing our own prayers to go unfulfilled.

G-d hears our prayers and blesses the works of our hands, yet when our hands do not work, then there can be no blessings. We have in essence silenced prayer and stripped G-d of hands (G-d forbid). Granted G-d can work through whatever agent in the world He so chooses. Yet, Torah is clear that we are His chosen agents. So when we do not do our share, then we cut off our own salvation. This is exactly where we are right now. This is why things today are so desperate and dangerous.

The great modern Babylon, leader and whore of the nations is destined to soon topple and fall. In a single day, in an instant, she will fall and not rise up again. She will fall to a combination of events. On one side the combined economic/social/political scene will become so terrible that it will make living in modern Babylon a hell on earth. Then "it" will come, a natural disaster beyond anything experienced in recorded history; a cataclysm that some will define as being an extinction level event. With these two together, one on top of the other, Babylon will fall.

Everyone, Jew and Gentile, man, woman and child, will see such tremendous and massive change in everything that we know and recognize. Once the changes are all over, we will not even recognize our world. Everything, down to the fundamental basics will be changed. We will not need thousands of years of evolution for this to occur. It will happen over a period of a few short months. Think about what it will take to trigger such massive and sudden change and you will get a picture of what is soon to come.

Do not fear! Do not despair and run away. Do not resign yourself to a terrible fate and proclaim it G-d's Will. It most certainly is not!! G-d's Will is for you to live and to thrive. Yet, in order to do this there are steps you must take in order to bring this about. You can pray all that you want, but prayer alone is not enough; now you must take the practical necessary steps to bring your prayers to fruition.

Do not ask the stupid question when will this great tribulation come. There are no time schedules here, although some claim that the time is set and known to the few. While this may be so, still, it does not matter. No one knows from day to day what will be. Indeed, no one knows what will be from hour to hour. We foolishly worry about the future. Yet, we do not even know what will befall us in next five or ten minutes. If not for the Grace of G-d at every moment, we would not live to breathe our next breath. So do not worry so much about the future, rather place your focus on the "here and now."

Now is the time when we have to prepare for the future. Stockpiling food and weapons might sound like a good idea, but all such survival preparations can be overturned in a moment. You can be physically separated from your supplies and then what good will they all do you. They can all be lost in a flash, in an earthquake, flood or bomb blast. Such preparations, while having their merit, are still for the most part, a waste of energy and time.

Preparing for the future means to train yourself, body and soul, to be able to face and deal with the rigors of any kind of tribulation, present and future. Even those physically prepared to face disaster often crumble psychologically, ending up dead because of the fear and insecurity in the souls. Fear kills more souls than any physical force. Preparing for Mashiah means to train to become a warrior and all warrior training, ancient and modern begins with the mind/soul. We begin with disciplining the heart and mind. Afterwards, the body will follow suit.

The Ba'al Shem Tov, long ago said, that prior to the great coming of Mashiah to the world, we must each psychologically actualize a personal portion of Mashiah within our individual mind/souls. Until we have a portion of the Mashiah within us, how can we expect to recognize him when he comes? As the old saying goes, "it takes one to know one."

In spite of however bad things are becoming there is always hope. Our hope is not in miracles and magic, rather our hope is in the power that we already have within us. G-d has created us human beings with tremendous inner natural resources. We can overcome any adversity, no matter how great or small. We are beings created in the Divine Image. We do not need miracles and false hopes. All we need to do is what we have always been able to do so well. We need to learn to live as full human beings and stop living like animals.

We desperately need to detach ourselves from the distractions of secular living, with all its pursuits of wealth, opulence and power. We need to recognize that the present new world order being built is not our world order. Indeed, the present new world order does not reserve a place for us. The secular/atheist new world order has discarded us and everything we hold sacred, so too must we discard it.

We must return to explore the true Torah way. We must dismiss the present generation of leadership because they have all been compromised. Their "meows" must be stilled. We need to inspire and arouse mighty lions to again take their places at the head, the heads of yeshivot, the heads of the military and the heads of government. Yet, all these institutions are parts of modern Babylon. Therefore, I believe they are beyond repair. I do not believe that we will chance society. I do not believe that we can replace all modern day pussycats with lions. But, in spite of this, there is still great hope. There is still much that we can do.

You yourself do not have to remain being a pussycat. You can learn to roar like a lion and take your place as head of your own life. This is entirely up to you. You as an individual can actualize Mashiah within yourself. You can bring to yourself personal redemption, long before the nation and the planet will experience it. It is all up to you. There is hope and salvation is already inside you, waiting to come out. G-d is already with you. All you need do is release His salvation from within your mind and heart and take your rightful place as lion at the head of the pack.

Character counts for everything. Your morals and fortitude mean everything. Standing up to be the best you can be mean everything. Upholding what is right in the face of the most staunch opposition means everything. Roaring like a lion when all others around you cower with fear and meow like pussycats means everything. Be wise, be strong, be determined and most important; be honorable.

Turbulent times require great leadership. Fear and the meows of pussycats will lead us down the path of death. Bravery and the roar of the lion will lead us down the path of life.

Mashiah is indeed here and among us. He is waiting for us to join him in the desert. When we see him first in our hearts, only then will we recognize him with our eyes. "The lion has roared, who will not fear? The L-rd G-d has spoken, who can but prophesy? (Amos 2:8)