This article is reprinted with permission of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and may not be reproduced without its permission. For more information about JTA, visit www.jta.org.
NEW YORK, Aug. 27 (JTA)--Typically an outspoken political activist, Rabbi Avi Weiss struggles for the right words when it comes to talking about Ground Zero.
"I can't go down to that place any more," says Weiss, the spiritual leader of the Hebrew Institute in the Bronx, N.Y.
On that fateful September 11, the rabbi walked many blocks into the suffocating dust cloud arising from the collapsed World Trade Center, hoping he could help. His actions were "insignificant" compared to firefighters, police and rescue workers who, he says, turned a place of evil into "a congregation of holy souls." But one year later he sees a "rush of politicians and others to be at that spot," and while understands the need to see it, he won't go.
Instead, Weiss will mark the anniversary of the attacks as well as High Holiday services by asking his congregation for a period of "nonverbal communication" like the moment of silence that brings Israel to a halt on Memorial and Holocaust Remembrance Days. But they'll also recite Psalms, read names and stories of victims, and talk about trust--"not only in each other, but finding it in your soul to trust in God."
Weiss is hardly alone in his struggle to find a way to talk about September 11.
Last year's High Holidays came just days after the devastating attacks--and many rabbis ripped up their planned sermons to try to find the words to comfort their congregants. A year later, rabbis across the country are grappling with how to address a tumultuous year that saw a sharp increase in terrorism in Israel and a resurgence of anti-Semitism around the world even as their congregants tried to recover from the shock and pain of September 11.
Some congregations will mark the one-year anniversary on the date itself, others will mark it on the Hebrew calendar day of the attack, the 23rd of Elul, which falls on Aug. 31 and coincides with Selichot services, which begin the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah.
But most rabbis plan to use the High Holidays--Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which begin September 6 and September 15, respectively, bracketing the September 11 anniversary--to try to tackle what many say has been one of the most traumatic years in recent history.
Rabbi Barbara Penzner of Temple Hillel B'nai Torah in West Roxbury, Mass., says she and many colleagues have "struggled" to address the issues. Some rabbis she knows will be retelling stories of September 11 heroes, while others are discussing the terrorism Israel still faces each day. Others are exploring how fear shapes our response to the attacks, and some are simply asking where God was on that day.
"People are trying to find one aspect of this tragedy and the past year and trying to give people inspiration and hope," she says. Penzner, the past president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, says she will explore whether the past year has made a real "difference" in our lives--or have things returned to normal?
"As Jews, we have a significant perspective, because we have lived though so many crises and calamities and we can appreciate how to live through events and not let them overpower us."
Rabbi David Wolpe of Temple Sinai in Los Angeles says he is still unsure how he will deal with the subject. "It's indecent to ignore it, but it's not the totality of what we face or what the holidays are all about," he says. Yet "there's a Jewish tradition of ritualizing and textualizing great events--how do you make it not of the moment, but a long-term event that affects our lives?"
One effort at finding such meaning is the recently published anthology Living Words IV: A Spiritual Source Book for an Age of Terror, published by Sh'ma, a Jewish journal.
In past years, the annual anthology served as a collection of High Holiday writings, but this past year editor Susan Berrin said many of the pieces she gathered concerned the attacks. Berrin saw "September 11, 5762 as a moment in Jewish history," she says.
Penzner and others contributed to what Berrin says should serve as a guide for educators and rabbis. So far this latest edition has sold 1,700 copies--triple the usual number, she says.
Rabbis are getting other help in coming to terms with this past year after September 11 from their movement's umbrella organizations as well. The Orthodox Union, for example, is posting a video message from Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, the group's executive vice president, which reflects on "our fragility, our vulnerability, and the nature of good and evil," he says. The O.U. is also sending out a Hebrew poem about tragedy by Moshe Sokolow, a Yeshiva University professor, which rabbis can incorporate into services.
Similarly, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism also e-mailed to its members a package titled "Project Zachor," which includes readings from specific Psalms, the mishebayrach, or prayer for recovery, for the survivors of the September 11 attacks and the families of victims, and such suggestions as lighting a yahrzeit candle.
Like other heads of rabbinical organizations, Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of United Synagogue, says he has heard from pulpit rabbis that they are finding it difficult to craft messages this year. "Most rabbis are trying to balance being sensitive to people who have lost individuals on that day, and the national crisis, with the need to move on with one's life and have a resolve to come away from this in a stronger way," he says. "But people are struggling. It's not something where words alone make a difference--it's the tone as well."
As Eric Yoffie, president of the Reform movement's Union of American Hebrew Congregations, put it, "There are no easy answers. In a 20-25 minute sermon, we're not going to solve these problems."
Still, like the other congregational groups, the UAHC has posted suggested liturgy for its member synagogues on its Web site, and officials like Yoffie have discussed September 11 with member rabbis in national conference calls.
Rabbi Ellen Dreyfus of B'nai Yehuda Beth Sholom synagogue in suburban Chicago, who is also president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, says events of the past year have instilled a deep new fear in the community, a sense of loss of control.
Immediately after September 11, Dreyfus says, she, like many, recalls feeling that now Americans know how Israelis feel every day. Even though we "don't feel quite as vulnerable" today, she says, Israelis still talk about a "myth of security" in which people define their own safety rules to deal with suicide bombers.
Ultimately, we're only human and we don't have control over much in our lives, but we have to think about what we do control."
For Rabbi Mark Diamond, executive vice president of the Southern California Board of Rabbis, that fear takes shape almost every time he drives past an airport on his way to work in Los Angeles.
"I see small planes landing about two miles from my house, and if it looks like they're banking too steeply over the San Fernando Valley, my heart skips a beat." So one way Diamond will deal with that fear is the message he'll bring to his congregants at Temple Ramat Zion in Northridge, Calif., over the holidays.
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