Each commemoration of 9/11 feels different. The further time progresses, the more difficult it is to feel the physical closeness to the day. Yet, as time passes, the clarity of tomorrow appears from behind a cloudy veil.
 
I have now experienced commemorations in New York, Israel, and Los Angeles. I have stood next to wreckage from the towers and sang “God Bless America,” and I have recited the Mourners Kaddish with families of victims from that day.
 
I will always remember as a rabbinic intern in Greenwich, CT, just a few years after 9/11, many spouses and parents of victims who perished coming for their loved ones’ yahrzeits. There was a community of mourners.
 
This week, 24 years after 9/11, we are called to be a community of builders.
 
This year, 9/11 arrives just two weeks before Rosh Hashanah. In the midst of Elul, we are on the journey of return–return to our own souls and the journey to open our souls to the hearts of others.
 
This year, 9/11 will look different than any commemoration before.
 
As we remember the thousands of lives lost, we will also build a brighter tomorrow.
 
This Thursday, please join me as we welcome Sharaka, an Israeli organization that brings Muslims from the Abraham Accords countries together with Jewish communities around the world to ensure partnership, dialogue, understanding, and ultimately, shalom.
 
In Elul we focus on change. On 9/11, come and meet these change makers that will transform our souls in the year ahead