CLAL Special Features
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September
13, 2001
STATEMENT
BY CLAL IN RESPONSE TO
THE WORLD TRADE CENTER CATASTROPHE
As
this is written, we pray for the strength of the rescuers, the healing of the victims, and
the comfort of the mourners. Our thoughts are
with all of you at this terrible time.
We
woke again this morning to the terrible reality -- this is not just a nightmare, it is
real life. We are all traumatized by the
events of the past days. We are all onanim, mourners who have not even reached the
point of being able to bury our dead. We know
that whatever we say, it cannot be enough -- it cannot be smart enough or sensitive
enough. But, we also know that we cannot be
silent. We must come together, share our
thoughts, and get through this together.
The need for connection is intense.
We are all seeking the affirmation of life, which such connection brings. Perhaps that is why on the day of the attacks we
at CLAL gathered in our office to watch the events unfold.
We talked, we assessed, we even prayed, but mostly we were there for each
other, together. And of course, what we did
for ourselves, we did for others. Despite all
precedents to the contrary, we ran programs the very next day. We gathered groups together to reflect on their
thoughts and feelings in study and conversation. Faculty
members found themselves at Chelsea Piers, St. Vincent's hospital, and the Red Cross. We went to give blood and volunteered as
chaplains. Again, no answers but many
connections – connections between victims and volunteers, clergy of different faiths,
and people of different ethnicities and nationalities. Those are the connections that we
need – connections that cross boundaries.
The
only firm boundary now must be between those who commit acts of terror, and those of us
who don't. The events of September 11
transcend national, religious, and ethnic boundaries.
We will have to reach across many such boundaries in order to fight the evil
that now confronts us. We must also cross those boundaries in connecting as a human
community struggling to recover from the events of the past days. We need each other.
There
is also the need for t'shuva (introspection). T'shuva empowers us. It is ultimately about
our capacity to shape our future, by reflecting on our past. Not repentance, but a turning inward to explore
both that which we have done, and that which we have not.
This is not about moral equivalence, but rather about the stock taking that
all of us must undertake at moments of crises. This
is about our roles in a world that has become so polluted with hatred.
As
we approach Rosh Hashannah, the birthday of the
world, we need to consider the world that we hope is being reborn. We actually have the power to address both the
social, political, and economic forces that shape our external world, and the spiritual
and psychological forces that shape our interior worlds.
For some of us, now is the time to ask: Where have we trivialized
the real threats that exist in this world because we did not want to see ourselves as
victims, and treat others accordingly? Where
have we turned a blind eye to evil because it hurt so much to see it? Where have we wrongly held back because we feared
becoming that which we rightly despise. Others among us need to ask, what is our role in
creating a world that is safe and secure for all people?
Whose voices do we need to hear, even though it is easy to call them naive? How many ways do we imagine there could be, to
combine love of one's nation with commitment to the welfare of the entire human race
without diminishing either?
In
the days and weeks ahead, we will need the courage to act strongly, as we mobilize real
force in the battle against terrorism and those that support it. We will also need the courage to listen carefully,
across boundaries that have often divided us. We
must get past easy compromises and superficial unity to the connections that emerge when
the truths of the many sides of the issues, which now confront us, are used not to compete
with each other, but to complete each other. Let
each us find that wholeness and that that strength.
Statement by Rabbi Irwin Kula, President, and Rabbi Brad
Hirschfield, Director of Leadership and Communities, CLAL—The National Jewish Center
for Learning. and Leadership.
Psalm 23
The
LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He
makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
he
restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff-- they comfort me.
You
prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my
cup overflows.
Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house
of the LORD my whole life long.
Psalm 121
I
lift up my eyes to the hills-- from where will my help come?
My
help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
He
will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
He
who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The
LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand.
The
sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The
LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.
The Diameter of the
Bomb
by Yehuda Amichai
The diameter of the bomb was
thirty centimeters
and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,
with four dead and eleven wounded.
And around these, in a larger circle
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered
and one graveyard. But the young woman
who was buried in the city she came from,
at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,
enlarges the circle considerably,
and the solitary man mourning her death
at the distant shores of a country far across the sea
includes the entire world in the circle.
And I won't even mention the crying of orphans
that reaches up to the throne of God and
beyond, making
a circle with no end and no God.
"The Diameter of the
Bomb," from THE SELECTED POETRY OF YEHUDA AMICHAI, by Yehuda Amichai. Translated by
Chana Bloch. English translation copyright 1986, 1996 by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell.
Each
of Us Has a Name
Each of us has a name
given by God,
and given by our parents
Each of us has a name
given by our stature and our smile
and given by what we wear
Each of us has a name
given by the mountains
and given by our walls
Each of us has a name
given by the stars
and given by our neighbors
Each of us has a name
given by our sins
and given by our longing
Each of us has a name
given by our enemies
and given by our love
Each of us has a name
given by our celebrations
and given by our work
Each of us has a name given by the seasons
and given by our blindness
Each of us has a name given by the sea
and given by
our death.
Zelda (translated by Marcia Falk)
Sometimes, I think
about you, during times I hadn't planned on, and in places that I hadn't designated for a
memory, but rather for some transitory thing that doesn't linger. Like at an airport, when
the arriving passengers are standing wearily by the revolving ramp that brings their
baggage and their packages, and suddenly, with cries of joy, they find their own, like at
a resurrection of the dead, and then they exit to their lives. And there is one bag that
keeps coming back and disappearing once again, returning once again, so slowly in the
empty hall, before, again and again, it passes on. Thus does your quiet image pass before
me; thus do I remember you, until the ramp stops moving and is silent. So it goes.
Yehuda Amichai
El
Malei Rachamim
Exalted,
compassionate God, grant perfect peace in Your sheltering
Presence, among the
holy and the pure who shine with the splendor
of the firmament, to
the soul of our dear____________ who has gone
to his eternal home.
Master of mercy, remember all his worthy deeds
in the land of the
living. May his soul be bound up in the bond of life.
The Lord is his portion. May he
rest in peace. And let us say: Amen.
KADDISH YATOM / THE
MOURNER'S KADDISH
Let God's name be
made great and holy in the world that was created as God willed. May God complete the holy
realm in your own lifetime, in your days, and in the days of all the house of Israel,
quickly and soon. And say: Amen.
May God's great name
be blessed, forever and as long as worlds endure.
May it be blessed,
and praised, and glorified, and held in honor, viewed with awe, embellished, and revered;
and may the blessed name of holiness be hailed, though it be higher by far than all the
blessings, songs, praises, and consolations that we utter in this world. And say: Amen.
May Heaven grant a
universal peace, and life for us, and for all Israel. And say: Amen.
May the one who
creates harmony above, make peace for us and for all Israel, and for all who dwell on
earth. And say: Amen.
Yitgadal v'yitkadash
sh'mei raba b'alma di v'ra khir'utei, v'yamlikh malkhutei b'hayeikhon u-v'yomeikhon
u-v'hayei d'khol befit yisrael, ba-agala u-vi-z'man kariv v'imru amen.
Y'hei sh'mei raba
m'vorakh I'alam u-1'almei almaya.
Yitbarakh v'yishtabah
v'yitpa'ar v'yitromam v'yitnasei, v'yit-hadar v'yit'aleh v'yit-halal sh'mei d'kudsha,
b'rikh hu 1'ela (1'ela mi-kol) min kol birkhata v'shirata, tushb'hata v'nehemata da-amiran
b'alma, v'imru amen.
Y'hei shlama raba min
sh'maya v'hayim aleinu Val kol yisrael, v'imru amen.
Oseh shalom
bi-m'romav, hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu Val kol yisrael, v'imru amen.
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