Now, let us put aside comments of doom and gloom and dire warnings about the future. I understand well that these fall mostly of deaf ears, so it is of no use wasting any more time talking about them. Let us instead talk about something equally relevant and maybe something the many may be willing to hear. Let us talk about faith in G-d; what this really means and how one practically and honesty implements this into one's life.

Faith in G-d is often interpreted to mean that one should simply continue doing what one is doing and to trust that whatever happens, be it for good or bad; that this is the Will of G-d. People have used this justification to rationalize all types of mishaps, illnesses and even acts of violence claiming that if G-d had wanted it differently, then things would have occurred differently. This type of mentality does not express faith; on the contrary it expresses the opposite of faith. This is misguided faith and foolishness.

Faith in G-d is an absolute necessity for life. Misguided faith in G-d is an absolute recipe for death.

Real faith requires real action. Tough times require tough responses. Real faith has nothing to do with how many Psalms you recite, or how ethnically or culturally religious you are. Real faith means that you take every single practical, rational step to protect and support yourself. You leave no stone unturned. You yourself do whatever it takes regardless of the effort or self sacrifice. Only when you have done everything that you can does faith begin.

Faith begins, when your efforts have been exhausted. Faith begins only once you have done everything that G-d and common sense has told you to do. When you have been taken to your limits, only then will G-d take you beyond your limits. This and only this is faith!

Faith has to be understood within the context of all the other commandments of the Torah. According to the Kabbalah, every one of the commandments is meant to be fulfilled at four specific levels or applications. These four levels correspond to the four Kabbalistic worlds of Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. The four worlds correspond to the four inner worlds within human beings; these being the spiritual, academic, emotion and physical domains respectively. Like all commandments of the Torah, faith is G-d must be fulfilled at all these levels.

Now, here is where the problem lies. Proclaiming faith in G-d is easy; to academically acknowledge the concept is equally easy; to feel close to G-d and express it emotionally is also not that hard. The real hard application about the commandment of faith is how to bring it down into the Asiyatic plane and put it into realistic and practical physical application. Here is where most people confuse matters and end up not expressing faith at all.

Torah has commanded us to choose life; and we are obligated to safeguard our health at all costs. These Torah commandments also have their spiritual side; however, their main application is to physical living here in this world. Health concerns are clearly to be physical and not just spiritual. Choosing life and safeguarding it is not just meant to be about life in the future world, but also life in this world.

One's faith has to be practical and integrated with the pursuit of life and the protection thereof. Any weakness in the area of one's safeguarding life is clearly a violation of the law commanding faith in G-d.

One cannot rectify the upper worlds and then expect some spiritual magic to suddenly change real life here on Earth. Such beliefs are not faith, they are foolishness. Even in Kabbalah there is discussion of what is called Descending Light (ohr yashar) and Ascending Light (ohr hozer). Ultimately, the Spiritual Law states, "no Light comes down before Light first goes up."

Light from this physical world is not some nebulous or emotional, spiritual proclamation or the performance of some symbolic religious ritual. Real Light from the physical world has always been defined as the actions we take and the behaviors we perform. This world of our in Kabbalah is called Asiyah. This literally means the world of action and doing. Our deeds are the Light. Our righteous behavior in doing the right things always is the Ascending Light that motivates spiritual movement and blessing.

The Gemara makes a profound statement in that the entire Torah of Moshe can be summed up into but one commandment. Quoting the prophet Habakkuk, the Gemara states, "the righteous will live by his faith." This is the essence and summary of the whole Torah.

We must always remember and never forget that the righteous are not defined by their attitudes or by what they believe; they are instead defined specifically by their actions. They choose to do the right things; those things that safeguard and preserve life. They look after themselves and they look after others PHYSICALLY in this world, taking care of the physical and practical needs of themselves and others in realistic and practical ways. This is what makes them righteous. They do what is right and are therefore call righteous. Their behaviors therefore are their faith. And this faith is what sums up the entire Torah!

Let me now give some actual and relevant examples of practical and realistic faith.

First, let me answer in the negative and outline what is not faith. Faith (and righteousness) together do not seek to compromise or to negotiate a settlement. One cannot negotiate and compromise with mindless viral hatred.

Faith and righteousness do not stick their heads in the proverbial sand and repeat the mantra that, "this is not real, this is not real, it will go away, it will go away, G-d will protect me, G-d will protect me." This is what got some many killed during the Holocaust. Any time we stick our heads in the sand and refuse to look the problem square in the eye, we are violating the law to live righteously and to choose life. Sticking one's head in the sand and denying the realistic nature of the problem, or worse, expecting some miraculous Divine intervention to magically make the problem go away is a complete violation of the law of faith.

Faith does not go on living and acting as if nothing is really wrong and that life goes on with ignorant bliss. All these expressions are often called faith, but they certainly are not! They are expressions of misguided faith; they are all outright violations of the laws to choose life, safeguard it and to live life with real faith made practical for living in the real world.

Now, let us address how real faith responds to a crisis. We have all heard an old military saying, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going." In other words, when crises arise, people of true faith prepare themselves to safeguard life, no matter what the cost. For the moment this is the one and only course that defines righteousness and practically acts out faith.

In this world, faith is not what you say, it is not what you believe; it is not what you tell others. No, in this world, faith is what you do; how you safeguard life and what you do to do the right things, always.

People of religion are today under serious, violent attack. The proper expressions of their faith therefore requires of them to take the proper steps to safeguard their lives and everything that they hold dear.

In places where violence can happen in a moment, people of faith should be prepared to respond to any type of violent attack. Houses of worship and other religious institutions should immediately post armed guards who are members of their own organization. These guards should not be simple hourly-waged security guards, but actual militarily trained soldiers or law enforcement personal, who are experts in weapons and combat. They should be members of the organization in that they share the common understanding of faith and righteousness and are willing to fight for it, and if need be, die for it. This is real faith in action.

Peoples of faith cannot always have armed guards with them. Therefore, each person of faith should learn how to defend themselves and life in general. Taking an extended course in Karate or Kung Fu is great exercise, but it is not a very practical way to learn realistic self defense. One should instead find a local course in practical street fighting; self defense techniques and learn them well. One should take such a course(s) until one can proficiently safeguard one's live (and that of others) if the circumstance ever arose. This is real faith in action. This is the way of Torah and the path of all role models found in the Bible.

Peoples of faith should investigate their local laws and then arm themselves in legal and practical ways. Where guns are legal I encourage every responsible citizen to have firearms to protect their homes and families. For portable use, there are also a number of "pepper spray" types of devices readily available and legal in most places. Even if confronted with an armed terrorist a single shot of pepper spray unexpectedly in his face would give you a few seconds, NOT TO RUN OR HIDE, but rather to attack. Attack what and how, you ask? These questions will be answered in your local self defense course. Mind you, these types of courses are usually taught by local off-duty police officers and may actually be offered through a local police precinct. One should do one's research and find out what is available.

People of faith should never hide behind their religion and proclaim that G-d will keep them safe without them having to take any of these steps. Such an attitude is not religious at all. It is the opposite of faith. It is a danger to life and thus an outright violation of Torah law.

Please! Do not listen to any religious so-called leader from any community who would tell you not to take these necessary righteous and faithful steps. Such an attitude of pacifism however well cloaked under the guise of Torah is certainly not Torah at all. Do not allow sermons and quotes from Rabbinical sources to confuse your minds from taking these necessary and practical steps in acting righteously and learning to live in faith by action.

Do not allow yourself to become lulled into false hope and blind denial. We are at war. We are at war for our very survival with an enemy who at any moment from any direction can attack us physically with a desire to kill us. Fools deny this and die. They violate Torah, faith and righteousness with their fears, weakness and denials. Fools of this nature are deceivers of the public; they violate the public trust. As such, they themselves will bring down upon their own heads doom and destruction. Indeed, Heaven itself states that they deserve their fate for deceiving the religious public and hindering them from preparing to defend themselves and living by real actual faith.

Jews have always been viewed as easy targets for violence because the accepted understanding is that Jews do not fight back. Only the State of Israel changed that and even the pride of Israeli strength has been eroded by compromises in government. Jews and now Israelis are often targeted worldwide without fear of reprisal or any concern about their ability to defend themselves.

We are known and judged by our actions. The righteous live by their faith. Their faith is in their righteousness. Their righteousness is what they do that is right. Defending life is what is right, so this is what is righteousness and therefore, defending life is the proper definition of faith.

I have been very repetitive throughout this essay because I believe that I have to be. Sometimes people do not get the message if it is only stated once. I am sorry that we all have to deal with such hard-headed and hard-heated people, but this is the reality.

So please, do not rely on any religious leaders who tell you not to be alarmed and that there is no need for security at either the institutional or personal level. If you have the power, dismiss such so-called leaders and have their influence completely removed. Their pacifism and attitudes of misguided faith will get people killed! Yes, the situation is that serious. Real faith requires real courageous action. Real faith requires one to trust in G-d, but it also means that one must use every G-d given bit of intelligence and common sense to fulfill the most basic of commandments.

We have been given commandments from G-d to safeguard life and to defend it. If we do not fulfill these most basic of commandments, how can we ever call ourselves religious? The time has come to implement true faith in G-d. This can only be done when we stop living in a fantasy and start living in reality. G-d will help us when we help ourselves. We have to do our share for G-d to do His. This is the secret of Descending and Ascending Light.

If you want to live, then choose life and do what you must do in order to safeguard it. If you do nothing, then you have already chosen death. Don't hide behind your religion and expect a miracle. Our Sages told us not to rely on miracles. Defend yourself, learn how to do it. This is righteousness; this is real faith.

Religious faith and armed preparedness are not contradictory. On the contrary, they are actually one and the same. Now, go do it!

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Shalom, HaRav Ariel Bar Tzadok

Please, please, please! Due to the importance of this essay, please pass it on to any individual and organization who will be willing to read it. You will be doing them a favor. Thank you.