| Dear {{first_name}},
I’d like to begin by again wishing everybody a Happy New Year. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to spend Rosh Hashana with all of you either in person or online. This Shabbat marks a very important and sad day for the United States of America. It marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11. All of us remember where we were on that fateful day. All of us remember how we first heard the news, saw the images and experienced the fear that was brought to us on that morning.
I was in my first year of rabbinical school and was living alone in Los Angeles. I remember the difficult and long drive to school that morning as I was glued to the radio listening to the news. I remember going into minyan that morning and putting on my tallit and tefillin, only to remove them just moments later. I don’t recall protesting prayer in that moment, so much as I felt an urgent need to sit and watch and know what was happening. That day we sat and learned at school because one of our professors told us we cannot allow ourselves to change because of the evil around us.
September 11, 2001 was one week before Rosh Hashana that year. No Rabbi knew at the time what to say or what to think or what to feel. No congregant knew at the time how to go to synagogue and think of anything other than what was going on in our country. I remember when the Rabbi emeritus of the synagogue I went to got up on the second day and delivered a sermon he had written around the time of World War II about the Nazis. I remember being shocked and amazed at how timeless the words were and how great a tragedy it was to experience.
Prior to September 11, the numerals 9-1-1 only evoked thoughts of safety and healing. Those three magic numbers were the first numbers we taught children to dial on the phone and they remain a lifeline to this day. Now those numbers carry a double meaning for all of us. It’s not just a phone number to save lives. These three numbers cause great sadness and fear in us all. But that kind of sums up September 11. On September 11, Americans discovered that safety could not be taken for granted. We discovered that hatred and anger in any part of the globe can pose a threat to us here at home. On September 11, 2001, Americans lost their innocence. We lost the ability to look at our surroundings without seeing security threats, to see airplanes as a fantasy travel instrument, and to live our lives unfettered by ugliness around us.
Much has changed in our country these last 20 years. We’ve found new and improved ways to keep our people safe and we’ve had hard conversations about what America means to the world and to ourselves. In this week’s Torah portion, we find very important words for us at this time. In Deuteronomy 31:6-7, Moses first implores the Jewish people to be strong and have courage and then in the next verse implores Joshua to do the same. The doubling of this message shows Moses saying it not just to his successor, but also to all of us, and is something we must take note of. 20 years ago, we had a choice to make that could change America entirely. We could make America an armed camp and exclude different people from our narrative and thus allow fear to win; or we could become smarter and more courageous in the ways we defend ourselves and the values we hold so dear in our hearts. Courage 20 years ago was hard to find but we found it. To believe in humanity and believe in ourselves is to be strong and have courage.
2,974 people died in those attacks. Every one of them was a soul, was a life and was a future. Every one of those victims did nothing to warrant their murder. Our response to their tyranny and hatred was simple: we will defend ourselves, we will make those who perpetrated and planned these heinous crimes pay and we will not change who we are. As a country we have mourned the lives lost on September 11 for 20 years. The grief we felt hasn’t gone away and I pray it never does. I say so because I believe in order to honor who they were, we must always grieve because they are no longer here with us. I say so because in order to grieve what we lost beyond the lives lost, it is our responsibility to remember and to honor the America that once was.
Each of us must find our own courage to constantly put one foot in front of the other and move forward. Each of us must find us find our courage to remain steadfast in our commitments to what America is at its highest ideals. Each of us must find the courage to never allow terrorists and terror to change us or break us. Their hatred and thirst for power must never define us. May the memories of all those who we lost 20 years ago continue to be a blessing and may we continue to bring honor to them all.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Hearshen |
