Yom Kippur, which began at sundown Sunday, is Judaism’s holiest day.
It is a time for prayer, repentance, reflection and renewal.
This year, there is much on which to reflect.
The 25th anniversary of 9/11 fell on the first day of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, when God passes judgment on people and nations.
A 9/11 ceremony in New York honored those who died and celebrated the heroism of those who gave their lives so others might live.
The left and radical Islam say we had it coming.
They charge that the World Trade Center attack was our punishment for being involved in the Middle East.
Our involvement consisted of defending our allies and preventing the crazies from getting weapons of mass destruction.
With rare exceptions, the Middle East is a hot mess, the haunt of religious fanatics and terrorists.
This pattern preceded the creation of the modern state of Israel, America’s involvement in the region and European colonialism.
It goes back to a seventh-century warlord who fancied himself a prophet and declared holy war on all who refused to follow him.
His followers still kill in his name.
Yet, in a way, we do share responsibility for the 9/11 atrocities.
The Bible says that if we behave a certain way, we will receive blessings; if we behave another way, curses.
Deuteronomy promised that if the Israelites kept their covenant with God, they would be blessed with rain in its season, abundant crops and victory over their enemies.
If they violated the covenant, they would suffer disease, drought, famine and death at the hand of their enemies and eventual exile from the land God had given them.
Our conduct as a nation shames me – abortion up to the moment of birth; turning mothers who murder their children into celebrities; the mutilation of adolescents in the name of our latest idol, transgenderism; pornography pushed to schoolchildren; the streets of our cities turned into open sewers; recreational drugs; and accusing a nation of Holocaust survivors of genocide.
What kind of....
