Dear Friends,
Nineteen years ago today was a day that we will always remember. My father-in-law, before he was my father-in-law, worked at the World Trade Center. My wife remembers when she first found out about the attacks. She left school, and walked home, without knowing what had happened to him. At Scarsdale Middle School, many of the students had parents, like her father, who took the train into the city for work every day. That day, unlike my father-in-law, some of her classmates' parents didn't come back.
Judaism has always placed an emphasis on remembering. We are commanded to remember Amalek, who attacked us when we were most vulnerable, so that we will never let something like that happen again. During some of the holiest days of the year, including Yom Kippur, we hold a Yizkor service. A service where we are supposed to remember the loved ones whom we have lost. When we talk of the Holocaust, it is our responsibility to make sure that we never forget. But remembering is not just something we do in our heads and in our hearts. Judaism also reminds us that we remember with our actions. When we recite the Yizkor service, we don’t just recall those whom we have lost, we pledge to give charity and we commit ourselves to living our lives and making choices inspired by the values that those whom we lost held dear.
We remember the 2,977 who lost their lives that day, and the countless others whose lives were destroyed. We remember how we mourned together as a nation, but we also remember how we came together as a nation in the wake of the tragedy.
May we always remember, and may we live our lives and conduct ourselves in a manner honoring the memory of those whom we lost.
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Josh Dorsch
