If September 11th was a turning point for the United States of America –and I believe it was indeed, if there is a "before" and "after" September 11th, this before and this after affects each of us. Certainly it should affect you, who were born in this country, and it certainly affects my family and me, who have found a new home here. It affects the descendants of those pilgrims who in the 1600’s fled religious persecution in Europe, and it affects the descendents of those who came through Ellis Island searching for an economic and political haven.

The tragedy that befell us last Tuesday, exactly one week ago, affects all of us, in one way or another. It will affect –we don’t know how yet - the relationship between the USA and Israel and the relationship between the USA and the Arab countries. It affects the way we look at other countries and certainly affects the way other countries look at us.

The High Holy Days are the opportunity that Rabbis have to transmit to their congregants a feeling of hope and renovation, to summarize the achievements of the previous year and to focus on the needed changes for the coming one.

However, these High Holy Days are also different in this regard. The terrorists, who want us to divert our attention to them, succeeded at least in this point: they made us change our agenda. Since it is impossible –and also insane- to play the game "Nothing happened here, let’s continue with our normal lives", we are forced to talk about what happened, and since we know that September 11th has already affected our lives, we would like to know how it has affected our lives.

One week ago, my brother called from Argentina. He wanted to find out if we were doing well. Those who are familiar with the geography of United States –as he is - should know that Roanoke, VA, is more than 200 miles away from Washington DC and more than 400 miles away from New York City. I found out that my brother knew that the tragedy did not affect us physically, but he wanted first hand reactions. Who did it? How many died? How will this affect your life? I tried to explain to my brother that since our 21st century world is characterized by its complex and fast system of communication, what I knew here was the same that he knew there. However, after a few minutes of conversation, I understood that his calling had an ulterior motive: he needed to talk to me, to his only brother who happens to live in the USA. He called me because he was scared. And this is what my brother shared with me, one week ago:

"If that happened in the middle of New York –he said- it can happen anywhere. There are no more safe places in the world. You can not hide, you can not run away. It doesn’t matter any more if you are rich or poor, if you are black or white, Jewish or gentile, if you live in the third world or in the first world. If it happened there –my brother told me- it could happen anywhere".

My brother was able to put into words a frightening truth: anybody could have been there and in this regard, all of us are survivors.

Now, people have used the phrase "all of us are survivors" in the past. What makes it different this time, my brother tried to tell me, is that since it happened in the United States; the feeling of security is shaken everywhere.

When we read that the Crusaders killed thousands and thousand of Jews on their way to the Holy Land, we could associate it with the darkness of the Middle Ages. When in the middle of the last century, in one of the most "civilized" countries of the world, a plan was put together to exterminate the Jewish People, whoever was not Jewish could find security in the fact that this was something that happened only to the Jews in Europe. When seven years ago, a car bomb demolished the main building of the Jewish Community in Buenos Aires, we could find confidence that this happened in a third world country, filled with corruption and intrigue. When a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Tel Aviv discotheque, we could find comfort in our safe America and decide that this coming year we won’t visit the land of Israel.

However, when in time of peace, out of the clear blue sky, without warning, two hijacked airplanes hit the World Trade Center, burning and burying alive thousands of Americans, our sense of security and the sense of security of the entire world, whose eyes are upon America, collapses as well. And with the Psalmist we lift our eyes to the hills and cry:

Since America is the most powerful country in the world, since it is the wealthiest, the most stable, the most democratic, when the feeling of security is shaken in America, it is shaken everywhere.

"From where will my help come when I can not rely on my own strength, on my own wealth, on my own intelligence?" "From where will my help come, when there is no place to run away, no safe haven to escape to, no identity to change?"

"From where will my help come, when nobody else can help, when we feel terrified, scared, insecure?

As we’ll pray in our Musaf Service, in "Unetane Tokef", the most significant prayer of the High Holy Days:

"Man’s origin is dust and his end is dust. He spends his life earning bread. He is like a clay vessel, easily broken, like withering grass, a fading flower, a passing shadow, a fugitive cloud, a fleeting breeze, scattering dust, a vanishing dream" (from Unetane Tokef)

And since we know now, even better than we knew last year, that we are vulnerable, we can lift our eyes to the hills and cry again and again:"

And we may find that last week’s tragedy could have given us the unexpected gift of renewed faith. If the purpose of the High Holy Days is to help us face our own vulnerability, was what happened one week ago not enough to convince us that we are not the masters of our own lives?

Unexpectedly, we may find God in the midst of our search. And suddenly we may be able to answer with the Psalmist: "My help is from God, Maker of heaven and earth".

"As clay in the hand of the potter, to be thickened or thinned as he wishes, are we in Your hand, O preserver of kindness" (from the Yom Kippur Service)

I don’t know about you, but I am scared. I am scared for myself and for those I love. I feel also that I have good reasons to be scared. This is a time of uncertainty and insecurity, and uncertainty and insecurity are not feelings we like to welcome into our lives.

But when uncertainty and insecurity visit us, we may find strength in our Jewish heritage, in the fact that we know indeed how to survive. We may find courage in the ancient words of our prayer books, in the holy words of our Torah, in the color and magic of our rituals.

Moreover, when uncertainty and insecurity visit us, whenever we feel tired and scared, when everything else fails, we can turn to God. Not to the "word God", or to the "idea God", but to the Living Eternal God, Ruler of the Universe, our Maker and Maker of everything we know, and join King David in his beautiful psalm:

And so, this is my wish for this coming year. May all of us feel God’s redeeming presence in our lives; and may the Almighty bless our families and us with health, and joy, sustenance and fulfillment, sweetness and peace.

Shanah Tovah!