Remember - 23 Elul

It's that time of year again. Last week we read the injunction to remember what Amalek did to us on the way out of Egypt. Some authorities consider that reading a Biblical command (mitzva d'oraita) ths year since, 5771 being a leap year, there will be thirteen months between Shabbat Zakhor of 5770 and 5771, and the passage must be read or listened to every twelve months. 23 Elul is the yahrzeit for some 3000 innocent people in the World Trade Center, in the Pentagon and aboard four hijacked airplanes who were murdered by the Arab Amalekim on September 11, 2001. It comes out on this coming Thursday, September 2. So take a fresh look at the images I posted here some time ago. If you are in New York, make an effort to visit the World Trade Center site; September 11 this year is Shabbat Shuva. Too many of us pass the site by, as they pass life by, as if nothing happened. They don't want to deal with the implications of having powerful enemies out to kill us, enemies who are nothing if not persistent. They just shrug off every terror plot foiled that would have killed hundreds if not thousands more. They do not seem to care that the good guys have to get it right each and every time, while the Amalekim have to get lucky only once, and as any general will tell you, sometimes the enemy simply gets lucky. They push it all to the back of their minds as we once did the threat of nuclear holocaust, because to deal with it would impair one's ability to function normally.

So visit the site. Recite a few psalms, and El Malei Rahamim for the dead. Never mind that people will look at you like you're crazy; they did that with Avraham Avinu too. He stood on the side of sanity when the rest of the world was crazy. If you see a Jew passing by, remind him or her that it's the yahrzeit of the 9/11 butchery. To forget is, God forbid, to invite more of the same, and worse.

NEVER FORGET!