Here’s one of the things that really struck me in the days, weeks and months that followed - how very different people could be from one another. The most extreme examples were the hijackers who were ready to die so that they could murder other people that they had never met before, and then the firefighters that raced towards the towers, towards the danger to do the opposite - to save people that they had never met before. The stark contrast between villain and hero is ra

When a human king mints a coin, they're exactly alike. Not so when God mints a person — we're all in the image of Adam, yet each unique. When I want to spend time with my wife, my kids, my friends, I don't want just any human being, and I don't want a computer. I want those specific people. We can mean more to each other than a computer ever could, because we offer our unique souls.

We can’t let our Judaism just be in response to whatever is happening on the news. As I write this, it’s the middle of the month of Elul, the period leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So being Jewish “today” means being a Jew entering the High Holy Days. It is a time to reflect on who we’ve been and who we want to be, as Jews and as people. May our reflections and our answers to those questions lead us to a good year ahead. Shanah Tovah.

We're entering Elul now, the month of reflection before the Days of Awe, and soon after, Sukkot, our harvest festival, of gathering in what was planted long before this season began. As we plant this fall, in our yards and in our lives, may we have the wisdom to plant some things for now, and the faith to plant other things for a future, even if there’s no guarantee on what that future may hold.