Barbara Olsen rescheduled her flight to Los Angeles to the next day, September 11, in order to stay home and have breakfast with her husband on his birthday. She was on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Her account of the hijacking, phoned to her husband, gave the FBI its insight into what was happening on that doomed flight.

Mychal Judge, a Franciscan Priest and chaplain to the New York City Fire Department was administering last rites to a dying man at the World Trade Center when the building collapsed and debris fell on him, fatally wounding him.

More than three hundred firefighters, police officers, and emergency medics ran up into the World Trade Center to help rescue people, and died along with those they could not rescue in the collapse of the buildings.

Many of the passengers on hijacked Flight 93, having had telephone contact with friends and relatives on the ground, now knew about the fate of the other hijacked planes. They decided that they would rather die than allow their flight to become another bomb. They rushed the hijackers…

We do not know exactly what happened, but their heroism kept the hijackers of their flight from killing other innocents.

Harry Ramos had just returned to his job at a small investment bank in the World Trade Center Building #1 from a week's leave after mourning the death of his mother-in-law. He was in his office on the 87^th floor when the building was hit by the first hijacked plane. As he and others descended through the smoke and the panic down the stairway to the 53^rd floor, Harry saw a heavy-set man, whom he did not know, who seemed unable to move. As it turns out, this man was Jeff Brandstetter's sister's husband, Victor Wald. Another man from the firm, Hong Zhu, stopped to help Harry get Victor to his feet, and together the three of them made it to an elevator. The elevator stopped at the 44^th floor, and the two men continued to help Victor walk down the stairs.

On the 36^th floor a fireman, running up the stairs, shouted at the two men to leave Victor and get out themselves. Mr. Zhu did exactly that, but Harry Ramos stayed with Victor. That was the last time anyone saw them alive.

Harry died five days before his 46^th birthday. He leaves his wife mourning not only her mother, but him, as well. He also leaves behind two sons, one five years old, and one four months old.

For a long time I have known the sardonic quip that Jews say in situations like these: "no mitzvah goes unpunished." It is a direct, frontal assault on the notion that G0d is good, and does good things to protect those who do good from harm, as our Torah and our prayerbook so confidently assert. For example here is the beginning of the Amidah:

"Your ways are ways of love. You remember the faithfulness of our ancestors, and in love bring redemption to their children's children for the sake of Your name. Remember us unto life, for You are the Sovereign who delights in life, and inscribe us in the Book of Life, that Your will may prevail, G0d of life. You are our Ruler and our Help, our Savior and our Shield. Blessed YOU, Ad0nai, the Shield of Abraham and Sarah."

And this is from the Book of Proverbs, chapters 10 and eleven:

Proverbs 10: 1. The proverbs of Solomon.

2. …Tzedakah tatzil memavet: Tzedakah/"Righteous giving and doing" saves from death. 16. The wage of the righteous leads to life; the gain of the wicked to sin. 27. The fear of G0d prolongs days; but the years of the wicked shall be shortened. 29. G0d's way is a fortress to the upright; but it is destruction to evildoers. 30. The righteous shall never be removed; and the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.

11:5. The righteousness of the innocent shall direct his way; but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. 6. The righteousness of the upright shall save them; but transgressors shall be caught by their own lust. 8. The righteous person is saved from trouble, but the wicked falls into it.

One traditional Jewish practice, based on the first verse I just read—that tzedakah saves from death—is to give someone who is going on a journey some money to give as tzedakah when they get there. People do this under the assumption that if someone is on a mission to do the mitzvah of giving tzedakah, G0d will protect them from death. Well, I do not know if anyone on the four hijacked planes was traveling with tzedakah money in her or his pocket on September 11, but if they were, it did not have the desired effect.

These Biblical and liturgical assurances did not pan out on September 11, nor can we rely on them at other times. In fact, in order to be a real monotheist, one who believes in "only one G0d Wh0 created All," one must agree with the prophet Isaiah, whom we quote in an emended fashion, following the Barchu of every morning service. Look at page 82, where it says: "Blessed YOU, Ad0nai our G0d, Ruler of the universe, creating light and fashioning darkness, making peace, creator of All."

The full quote is:

"I am Ad0nai, and there is no other (Wh0) forms light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates evil; I, Ad0nai, do all these." (Isaiah 45:6-7)

Our ancestor-rabbis decided that it was important to affirm G0d as the sole creator of the universe, but amended the quote so as "not to give Satan a chance to open his mouth." They did not want us focusing on G0d as the creator of evil, only as the creator of All.

All this is to say that even though we may believe in an OmniPresent, OmniScient, and All-Powerful G0d, it is difficult to stomach the full implications of the possibility that G0d was behind the evildoers on their twisted mission of death. Of the congregants who sent me responses to my question, "Where was G0d on September 11," only a few saw G0d actively involved in the events of the day, and none of them could fully bring themselves to say that. Here is one way that that was expressed: "I can accept that G0d created evil, although I don't know why. If I believed that G0d created us because G0d likes stories, then I suppose I could believe that the stories need protagonists and antagonists. But I’m more comfortable believing that I am simply incapable of comprehending G0d’s motives."

This is the lead-in to my reading excerpts from their responses, for which I thank all the respondents. I especially thank Leah Orr who alerted me to the National Public Radio show, entitled, "Where was G0d?" that aired last Sunday, September 23. I have a copy of the show that I taped, but you may also access it off the NPR website.

I also thank Sarah Macaluso for pointing me to the LATimes Op-Ed piece of September 19, 2001, by Michael Berenbaum, former president of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, has written on the theological implications of the Holocaust, titled " Where Is God? God Is in the Rubble." That pretty much tells you what he had to say.

As I begin to read the responses, let me point out that the remarks fall into two main groupings, each of which is subdividable into two more. The two main categories of responses see G0d either actively engaged in the day's events, or not actively engaged in the day's events.

Of those who see G0d actively involved, one group sees a Divine plan at work, and the other sees G0d helping the victims.

Of those who see G0d not actively involved, one side sees G0d as having revealed goodness and having given humans the free will to act in G0d's stead to bring goodness about, and another group see G0d and G0d's Divine commandments as elements of human motivation, and sometimes as figments of the human mind.

One person even commented on these categories. This is what she said: "I once attended a workshop where G0d was described according four different levels of involvement with humankind. I can only remember three of them, The Puppetmaster who pulls every string, orchestrating every act of all time; the Watch-maker who created a beautiful mechanism which only needs occasional tune-ups; and the Architect who designs and builds beautiful buildings but has no further involvement once construction is complete. I tend to subscribe more to the Watch-maker school of thought."

I should also say that several people made comments that fell into two or more of these categories. As you listen to them , you may find yourself also agreeing with sometimes contradictory statements. That is part of what it means to be Yisra-El, one who wrestles with G0d.

Here now are excerpts from fellow congregants as to where G0d was on that fateful day. The full texts of their remarks, minus their names and most other personal details, will be posted on our website along with this sermon. I have only standardized the language concerning G0d. Otherwise all these are the words of our congregants.

Here again is the question: "Where was G0d on September 11, 2001?"

First, there is discomfort with the question: "Why do we ask this now? How dare we ask this now, if we don't ask this when a school bus in Israel is blown up? Or when AIDS is decimating the entire continent of Africa? Or when one of my students was born with Cerebral Palsy or with Muscular Dystrophy? Do we only ask about G0d's whereabouts when the United States is attacked?" Or: "My answer is that G0d was the same place G0d is every day. Days this year when thousands die of starvation, disease, and civil war. Days when a young father is run down by a drunk driver, or a mother of 3 is stricken by cancer at a young age. G0d was in the same place as when a child is rescued from a well shaft or a vaccine is discovered that will prevent polio."

After that disclaimer, they offered answers. Let us start with those who feel as if G0d was not actively involved in the events of the day, beginning with the issue of human free will: "When G0d created man in G0d's image, G0d had to create a being that G0d couldn't control, meaning that because G0d could make decisions, G0d had to give man free will… Therefore, we have to conclude that the hijackers had free will and did what they did for their own reasons. And G0d, although G0d may have been with every one of the victims, was powerless to change their fate."

And: "I don't believe in the "beg & blame" G0d, where you ask for things and then blame G0d when you don't get them. G0d gave humans free will. I believe that G0d was watching the world on September 11. I think G0d was crying. Crying for what humans have done with free will." One of our members sent me a part of a favorite sermon written by William Sloane Coffin, which said: "For some reason, nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of seemingly intelligent people to get it through their heads that G0d doesn't go around the world with G0d's finger on triggers, G0d's fist around knives, G0d's hands on steering wheels. G0d is dead set against all unnatural deaths..."

Another member wrote: "G0d, was in the usual place. Watching the experiment go awry. I don't believe haShem intervenes (except, of course, when I'm flying - but then again I say the Shema the whole time)." She then goes on to say, as will many of those in the next category of answers, "Maybe this is the wake-up call to remember the ten commandments - the fundamentals that appear in ALL religions and none of those commandments is kill in the name of G0d."

To this I respond that though it is true that none of the Ten Commandments is to kill in the name of G0d, nonetheless, our own Torah details how G0d ordered our ancestors are to take no prisoners when they invaded Canaan. Unfortunately, all religions have some sort of scriptural or ancestral precedent for this kind of jihad, crusade, or conquest of a Promised Land.

Let me end this section with one last quote, very poignant: "I guess how I see things is as follows: G0d empowered us all- from the beginning of time- and gave us each the necessary resources with which to navigate life- on life's path we are given many opportunities to learn about and how to use these resources- we can take clues or follow certain paths...

The terrorists chose not to use these resources or follow any clues that G0d has given along the way.

Last week, on Sept. 11th, G0d covered her eyes and wept."

The next category of answers sees G0d as a very human mental motivation. This sums it up well: "G0d was in the minds of those whose daily actions are derived in full or part by their relationship and faith in the supreme. That includes many who risked their own lives at the World Trade Center to save others, the passengers on flight 93, and ironically the perpetrators who believe that their belief in G0d justified a terrorist attack."

And this: "Where was G0d 9-11-01? Same place as always. Same place as during our Holocaust, and all the other butcheries--recent and remote--perpetrated by "G0d's creation."

People were praying hard on those aircraft. The doomed passengers, making their heartbreaking personal pleas, prayed to the same G0d as the hijackers' Allah, to whom they believed they were being delivered as heroic martyrs. To me, that's the incomprehensible irony… We make G0d in our own image, not the other way around. Our creation may coalesce communities, guide us through life's cycles, and inspire us to soaring artistic and philosophical heights. But blind faith in a single image and intolerance of other images has obviously propelled humankind to many unspeakable horrors."

That statement leads to this one: "I understand very well that an act committed by a Muslim is not, ipso facto, a "Muslim act," but I am troubled that we are all bending over so far backward in the direction of dissociating 9-11 from Islam:

-- When an anti-abortionist sniper focussed his telescopic site on Dr. Barnard Slepian, whispered a prayer to Jesus Christ, and shot him in his kitchen he was acting as a Christian on the basis of Christian beliefs.

-- When Dr. Baruch Goldstein donned his yarmulke, adjusted his tallith, and murdered 39 worshippers in Hebron, he was acting as a Jew on the basis of Jewish beliefs.

-- When an Arab assassin tied a flight attendant to her seat, cut her throat, and crashed her plane into a pair of buildings housing 80,000 people, he was acting as a Muslim on the basis of Muslim beliefs.

Frankly, I'm not sure if I am saying anything more profound than, "Yes, there are fanatics and fundamentalists among us," but it does seem that we need to think very clearly and not be lured into the platitudes that arise out of wishful thinking."

This next comment allows me to transition from where G0d is only in the human mind to where G0d is actively helping humanity, though not always in the way we might wish:

"Perhaps more people are listening to G0d. Thank G0d...G0d cannot fix the world—G0d created it. It is our job to fix it; it is up to each one of us to listen and find a way to make the world a better place.

G0d can speak, but that doesn’t mean that some people will listen. On a very different level and scale parents understand this phenomena all too well….So, do we throw up our hands and simply say that we give up-after all it is in G0d’s hands?? To that I say no. Once again our history tells us that in times of crisis, adversity and uncertainty we must take action, not remain as passive victims. Let me emphasize that I am not talking revenge-I am talking about doing good things, the right things. The passengers on the doomed flight over Pennsylvania did that. And if I close my eyes and put a little-or a lot of faith in G0d, I would tell you that G0d may have had a part in helping the heroes who crashed the plane to understand that doing so would save many, many more lives than were tragically lost on that flight."

Similarly, this: "I think, I believe, I hope that now G0d is where G0d always is, creating opportunities for us to better ourselves as humans."

Some see G0d helping us even more actively than that. Let us listen to a child, for as Psalm 8:3 says: Mipi ollalim v'yonakim yisad'ta oz (Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have Y0u founded strength!): "I asked (my children) this morning your question about where G0d was last week, and (my son), age 6, immediately answered that G0d was inside the buildings helping people get out. I love this answer. In fact, if you think about G0d from the Reconstructionist perspective of "a force within ourselves that motivates us toward doing good," it's not difficult to see G0d in the hearts and energies of all of the people who are surviving this ordeal and who are helping others to get through it against all odds."

Returning to an adult perspective, "The G0d I have come to know does not take sides or wreak havoc. When we have to reach deep inside and do the hard thing, not the easy, make our own choice, not follow anther’s commands or ideology, there is G0d to help us, buoy us, guide us, provide the well of strength and courage for us to drink from.

G0d was with the passengers who made the most courageous choice of self-sacrifice and took action to divert the Pennsylvania flight; G0d was with the ordinary people doing their every day jobs that suddenly became extraordinary, the teachers, the firefighters, and the police.

G0d was with me as I watched the TV in horror alone all day and G0d helped me turn it off and be a mom when my young daughter came home from school. G0d was there for any of the hijackers who would have wanted to change their minds and their actions at any time."

And to end this section of how G0d helps out, there is this, which is a transition to the next section where some of us see G0d actively guiding events: "Where was G0d last week? As best I can figure, G0d was somewhere on that gesher tsar m'od (He is quoting the song we sing by Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav, that the whole world is a "very narrow bridge," and the main thing is not to fear at all).With that image clear, I will begin his remarks again: G0d was somewhere on that "very narrow bridge" between the Twin Towers. In some respects, I thought today's shofar blasts were superfluous. If last week's cacophony didn't wake people up, nothing will. I pray that at least a small portion of the change I sensed in everyone this past week will remain for many years to come, and that it will significantly alter "business as usual" so that those who perished last week will not have done so in vain."

So we come to how G0d actively works in the world, according to those who see G0d doing just that. They all agree that we, human beings, are G0d's agents in implementing this plan. Here is one view: "G0d does not appear to be in the business of stopping human atrocities...G0d does allow these things to happen – again, I don’t know why. I do know that sometimes they are stopped, not by modern day plagues or splitting Reed Seas, but with human intervention….I believe that when humans act to stop atrocities or when they are able to escape the carnage, that G0d has a role."

This takes it further: "Where was G0d on 9-11? G0d was there. On Yom Kippur we say that G0d gives us what we need, not what we ask for. We ask for a prosperous stock market, but what we need is to pull together as a people. Pulling together to…bring freedom to those who do not have liberty that we have forgotten.

The sadness of human beings is that we do not pull together without a focus. …The deep sadness is that we allowed evil to flourish in the world and we did nothing about it. Evil ignored, not matter how remotely, will find us.

But we were complacent to this evil; just as a generation ago this country was complacent to the evil of Fascist dictators…The Taliban and the evil of extremists has reached out and touched us. We must fight evil with good...We are also going to be tested to see if we cause a war that is a greater evil than the evil we seek to eliminate."

And these comments which address the issue directly: "I truly believe, and have for many years, that things happen for a reason…We may not know what those reasons are at the time of the event, but later, in hindsight, they will become apparent to us.

After I heard President Bush talk, I listened as he stated that we are dividing the world and the United States is leading the side for good. You could be with us, or with terrorism.

Could it be that G0d needs some powerful nation to do G0d's work and rid the world of terrorism, so that we can live in peace, and without fear? Could it be that G0d has chosen the United States to do that, because we have the power to bring the world together in a united front against terrorism?

Maybe G0d has been waiting for us to do something for a very long time, but we haven't been united, and, therefore, couldn't be effective. Maybe G0d has watched American citizens get greedy, and care more about there own little worlds, and not about what is really happening all over the world. Maybe G0d needed to shake us up, and say, "Hello!! Do you see what is going on in the world?! Don’t you get it?!"… And maybe, just maybe, this will really put an end to terrorism in years to come."

And one more comment from a child's perspective: "(My son), age 6, said "maybe the poor people did this so we would have to spend our money fixing things . . ."

I'll end with one last statement from a congregant that sees another, possibly Divine, message in this moment: "The events of last week have to further reinforce the message, "be with your kids" It could all disappear tomorrow. Corporate America will need to be more sensitive to the way people are wanting to be with families more than in the past."

Let me, however, add a cautionary comment for those of us who see God's Hand behind these events. I will, unusually for me, quote the Reverend Jerry Falwell in a newsclip from the Mercury News: "After criticism that included a denunciation by the White House, the Rev. Jerry Falwell apologized…for saying that (the) terrorist attacks reflected G0d's wrath at the American Civil Liberties Union, abortion providers, gay rights supporters and federal judges who banned school prayer.

In an interview…Falwell said his remarks ran counter to his lifelong theological conviction that it is not possible to know that a particular event reflects G0d's judgment."

I agree, and that is why it is against Jewish practice to enter someone's home who has suffered a death in the family and philosophize about the meaning of that death. We cannot tell by who survived or who did not what, if any, were G0d's reasons for that death or survival.

The appropriate response to death is silence. We dare not speak for G0d concerning any one individual action or person, no matter how strongly we believe that G0d may be motivating our lives. 'Nuff said.

As a way of appreciating what all our congregants said, which, by the way, was a microcosm of the entire breadth of traditional and liberal Jewish thought, let me say that before these events I had planned to speak about the strange way we begin the Amidah, by referring to the "G0d of Abraham, G0d of Isaac, G0d of Jacob, G0d of Sarah, G0d of Rebecca, G0d of Rachel, and G0d of Leah." It is not that we are referring to seven different G0ds. It is that we are incorporating all of our ancestors' different experiences with and conceptions of G0d as coexisting, legitimately, within our one people. As it is for our ancestors, so let it be with us. These many comments represent the complexity of who we are as a congregation. I am sure that you found yourselves agreeing with some of the comments, and wrestling with others. That is what it means to be Yisra'El—to wrestle with our views of G0d.

Let me return to where I began this talk, with the concept of tzedakah, meaning righteous giving and righteous action. In the synagogues of Eastern Europe the shammas would walk around on non-holy days with a pushke, a tzedakah can, and rattle the coins in it while sing-songing, Tzedakah tatzil memavet—giving tzedakah saves from death. One of my Hillel director colleagues, Rabbi Al Axelrad of Brandeis, used to rattle the can during morning and sing the same old song. It always bothered me that Al, a rationalist like myself, could go around pretending that giving tzedakah would save someone from death. So I finally confronted him one morning, and said so. Al turned to me and said, "Ari, it doesn't save you, but you may save someone else from dying."

And since that day, that is how I look at the giving of tzedakah. It is something I do to keep others from dying before their time, to fund shelters, emergency relief for people and animals, to keep hospitals going and to ensure that there is research into the causes and prevention of hatred and disease. The clink of tzedakah may not benefit me, directly or even indirectly, but it certainly will help chink away at death.

Similarly, when I give people tzedakah money to donate when they arrive on their journey, it is to show that I care about them, and to keep the spirit of giving tzedakah alive in their life as well as in mine. For those of you who have never experienced this custom, let me tell you that when someone gives you tzedakah money like this, the first thing you do when you get where you're going is look for a way to do the mitzvah. Is there any better way to begin a vacation or a business trip than with the blessing of giving?

And that is only looking at tzedakah as an act of righteous giving.

Look at the issue of righteous action. In the stories of misfortune with which I began this talk, I focused only on the irony of those whose good deeds did not protect them. But there were many whose deeds of tzedakah succeeded. I will mention only one. Two men carried a woman in a wheelchair down 86 flights of stairs, and all of them reached safety. We can never know why they made it while others from the same floor did not.

But when we look back at these days, what lessons and principles, Divine and human, will motivate us? What will we strive to emulate? What inner strengths will we draw on? All we know is that, as a people, and perhaps as individuals, we will be tested in the days, months, and years ahead.

The shofar has blown. We have heard our wake-up call. How will we respond?

Amen.