Unity Day: A Prayer to End Terrorism

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor

September 11th, 2002

 

In the Bible we read the words:

"Have we not all one Father?

Hath not one God created us?

Why do we deal treacherously, a man against his brother?"

We are the generation that has seen great evil and whose images of great destruction can not be purged from our memory, not matter how tightly we close our eyes. One year ago at this hour, the Towers were burning, the Pentagon was burning and so, too, a field in Pennsylvania. The cry of the Biblical author is our cry and the pain has echoed down through the generations. Though the walls are repaired and the field replanted and the debris of ground zero has been carted away, God's voice rages against the modern day Cain, "the blood of your brother cries out to me from the land." God's cry echoes and is not yet stilled.

Remembering the senseless destruction of thousands of people,

we have no words.

Recalling the image of pillars of American society falling turning into clouds of dust,

We have no breath.

Realizing the endless stream of horror, pain and grief, we have only tears.

To those who have sinned through deceit and murder, we know that our country will fulfill the Biblical commandment, "Justice, Justice shalt thou pursue," and follow the words of the prophet, "Let justice well up as the waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream."

We pray with all our hearts and souls to still the anger that rages within us, that the desecrated land be purified with deeds of love, that the tears which flowed like the primordial flood of Noah, wash away the stain of our pain. May terror and horrors end, and may those who perpetrate them know Your divine wrath and indignation. May the injured be granted complete healing, and the orphan, widow and widower know the power of your love and of neighbor and nation, to bind up your wounds.

Amidst it all, on a day which has returned us one year as if it was only yesterday, we dream the ancient dream of making "heaven on earth" in the words authored by the ancient prophet of Israel:

"And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,

And their spears into pruning-hooks,

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

Neither shall they learn war any more.

But they shall sit every man under his vine

And under his fig tree;

And none shall make him afraid."

I pray to the Eternal One, that has He has been able to keep constellations in their patterns, planets in their orbits in a grand heavenly design, may He make such a peace for us and for all humanity.

Amen.