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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg.

Good Morning.

The eleventh of September is an unforgettable date. Those of us alive at the time remember vividly where we were when we heard the news of the appalling terror attack on the twin towers that Tuesday twenty years ago. The sorrow continues. My heart goes out to everyone who lost a child, partner, or parent; the gap does not fully close over time, as I know from losing my own mother young. The consequences remain with us too, as those struggling to escape Afghanistan understand only too well.

Today is also significant in the Jewish calendar: it’s Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath which precedes the Day of Atonement. Though often translated as ‘repentance’, teshuvah means ‘return’. It’s a spur to rethinking our life’s purpose, a challenge to reconsider what we’re doing here on earth.

At the prayers after my father died, one of my teachers from rabbinical school said to me very quietly, almost tenderly: This is about teshuvah. I was puzzled. Was he instructing me to repent? If so, he was probably right, but his timing could scarcely be called sensitive.
Then I realised: he was telling me that mourning would make me revisit the big questions: What is life? What’s it for?

The shock of 9/11 reverberates still. It tore the deep issues open: What does it mean to know we’re so vulnerable? How should we use our time on earth? What good can we do, what pain can we alleviate?

God, may our teshuvah, teach us use to work for understanding and loving kindness in the world.