Ten Years

That's how long I worked in the World Trade Center (Tower 2, 27th floor) and now that's how long it's been since those towers have been gone. I was in California, in my first weeks of rabbinical school when the disaster happened. I had recently returned from a year in Israel -- the year that the Second Intifada began, bringing with it the resulting atmosphere of fear where we were all afraid that the bus you were on might explode at any moment.

So many people have things to share today on this anniversary, but I mostly feel a need for silence and quiet contemplation, so I won't write much here. The one thing I will share is that, although I have often felt deep pain -- especially in those first weeks -- about the event, I have much less often felt anger. I have much less often felt a desire for revenge, than I've felt a desire for healing -- a desire that the world will be healed in a way so that people are less likely to become so drunk with their anger as to commit such unspeakable acts.

The sadness that is in me today is not just about the losses 10 years ago. It's also because I'm not sure that we've moved much farther down the road towards that more healed world. And that's a loss, too.

May it be the will of the Blessed Holy One that we should all know peace and wholeness. May it come soon, speedily, and in our days.