Shabbat Shuvah and 9-11

Hashivenu Adonai aylecha v’nashuvah Chadaysh yahmeinu k’kedem. Turn us toward you Adonai and we will return to you. This phrase which is sung at the end of the Tisha B’Av liturgy and during the High Holydays speaks about the theme of returning, the very same theme of this Shabbat, Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath of Return. This particular Shabbat Shuvah also happens to be the 9th anniversary of 9-11. When I think about the way the world has changed since that day, I think about how children today grow up knowing about terrorism, how the language of hate is heard across the airwaves and on the internet, and how many fear a scenario of reduced freedoms caused by fundamentalist Muslims world-wide who are willing to give up their lives or take others’ lives while striving to impose their belief system on others. It is indeed a different world than many of us once knew. What would it look like if the world could turn from this path and where should it turn? Judaism actually gives us a vision. If you looked seriously at the machzor during Rosh HaShanah, you could find many examples of that vision, to which we hope to turn: "All that is savage and brutal will vanish, and all wickedness will disappear. Blind strife and bloody warfare will no longer devastate the lands, nor will discord tear mankind asunder. Bring an end to pestilence and plundering, fighting and famine, captivity, destruction, plague and affliction, every illness and misfortune, calamity and quarrel, every evil decree and causeless hatred. The Bible relates that G-d created a single human being as the forefather of all mankind. This teaches us that to destroy a single life is to destroy a whole world, even as to save a single life is to save a whole world. That all people have a common ancestor should make for peace, since no one can say to anyone else: My father was greater than your father.” These visions are of a world that understands the oneness of G-d, a world that accepts that there are many paths with which to find G-d but that they all must base themselves on a moral law. We see the period of redemption as a time when the path to G-d is accomplished not by uniting all on earth by force, but by providing freedom. We dream of a time when the words “Love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord,” speaks to all people." It often seems hard to envision ourselves turning as a world and actually seeing this vision fulfilled. We are told that we can’t wait for G-d alone to do the work, nor can we hope to do it all by ourselves. We are told that working for redemption means increasing the good in the world, increasing our acts of loving-kindness, and justice. It does not, however, mean letting evil be made to look morally neutral, nor does it mean ignoring the plots of enemies or the designs of foes who would wish to rule by tyranny. As the machzor points out, it is not our earthly rulers who deserve the ultimate allegiance, but G-d. We recognize that we have constant choices between good and evil, but we hope to resist evil by our deeds and to be sustained by the power of G-d’s justice. On this very special Shabbat Shuvah, may all of mankind find its way back to G-d and strive to fulfill a plan for a world that will bring peace to all of its inhabitants. Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah Tikateyvu. Nancy Coren