Shana Tovah...but the taste is bittersweet...

tonight Jews welcome the New Year...5787...when the sun also sets on the 25th anniversary of 9/11...and when we pray this weekend...and wish for sweetness...we, as New York Jews, will need to wipe the imaginary dust that remain on our lips...so that our prayers might be heard...as we enter the holiest week we ask for so much...so little...that we as Americans may remember what it was like the minutes...hours...days...weeks...and months after 9/11...how we looked after each other...cared for each other...stepped a little closer to being the type of people we long to be...we also will reflect...as American Jews...how can we confront the constant ugliness growing around us...worldwide...antisemitism...and how we can fight a good fight...when we are not united...as a people...fractured...angry...and most concerning...indifferent...this is a heavy day...I can't remember what I ate for lunch yesterday...but I can remember that sunny Tuesday September 11th morning in detail...it still shakes me to the core...there is an entire generation born since...with only second hand stories and online synopsis...yet, it has informed so much of their lives in the background...I can only hope that the horror is not just a ChatGPT footnote for future generations...or a photo op in front of the Greenwich Street Reflecting Pools...much in the way tourists need to pause and reflect at Pearl Harbor... put down the phone...and remember that life is precious...I pray that my people...both Jewish and American...can turn down the ugly noise around them...and think about what is really most important...at least for today...in memory of those we lost...and continue to lose to illness...in memory of what we lost...when I dip the apple in honey this New Year...I will wish for sweetness for this fractured city...country...and globe...L'Shana Tovah...