September 10th, 2024
Dear friends,
Twenty-three years ago today, on September 10th, 2001, as the day was coming to an end much like it is right now, as we left work and headed home, as we prepared dinner for our families, we assumed that the next day, that tomorrow would be like any other day…
Twenty-three years. It has been twenty-three years since airplanes were turned into missiles and since so many lives were tragically lost. Twenty-three years since our entire world was transformed by a new hatred.
On September 10th, there was a certain innocence about our world. On September 11th, we came face to face with a new kind of evil, one which sought mass destruction and murder. On September 11th, our innocence was shattered. We learned that we were not safe from those who wished us the worst kind of harm.
But September 11th was about more than just chaos – that day also awakened us to new modes of coming together –on September 11th, we came together as a nation to collectively grieve, to comfort and to stand up for joint values. In the days and weeks after September 11th, 2001, we were momentarily one people. Tomorrow, as we mourn the 3,000 lives lost, we will also grieve for that lost unity.
This year, our September 11th memorial comes less than a month before the one-year anniversary of October 7th. This year, we can’t help but feel the pain of these two tragedies — reminded of the evil that exists all around us but mindful of the unity that we still can achieve.
As we prepare to spend tomorrow remembering 9/11, let us work to seek that unity, to cherish life and to ensure that all lives lost to blind hatred are never forgotten.
Oseh Shalom Bimromav, Hu Ya’aseh Shalom, Aleinu V’al Kol Yisrael, V’al Kol Ha’olam…
Thinking especially today of all of those in our community who lost loved ones and friends….
L’shalom,
Rabbi Leiken