Opinion

There are moments in history seared into collective memory. 
 Twenty-five years ago, the world was tilted on its axis when terrorists hijacked multiple airliners, destroyed lower Manhattan and murdered 2,977 people. We have never fully recovered.

From the micro to the macro: I pray for my heightened focus on each and every word in our prayers and for health for our whole family — and for the excision of the hatred that besets our people and the end to weapons that threaten our people.

At a time when I thought it obvious that nothing else matters like “who shall live and who shall die” — at a time like Rosh Hashanah — I learned that “nothing else matters” means something else to Steve Bannon and to the Jewish attorney general of Michigan, Dana Nessel.

“Kids these days,” goes the age-old lament of the elderly, “are not what they used to be — not as independent, not as disciplined, not as thoughtful.” That lament aligns with the age-old Jewish concept of yeridat hadorot: the idea that each generation is inferior to the one that came before.

As the sacred days of Rosh Hashanah approach, there’s a perceptible change in the air. Once the Jerusalem breeze begins lingering, I can almost smell the approaching Days of Awe. Snippets of the selichot penitential prayers and the wail of the shofar are carried by this breeze.

One would think that the antidote to a sabotage of the economy and power of the US is a heavy dose of truth-telling, but the Democratic party in this election cycle went the opposite direction. The “Big Lie” left amplifies socialism, class warfare and crass bigotry via the megaphones of Democratic candidates and progressive initiatives across the nation and here in Colorado.

When is an apology an apology? When it’s made by fashion designer John Galliano. When is an apology not an apology? When it’s made by US Senate Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed. He offers a non-apology apology.

“She will never meet a survivor of Auschwitz.” On a recent visit to Denver with my one-year old daughter, I hoped to bring her to meet Cantor Zachary Kutner. A few months back, his son advised me to be in touch upon arriving in Denver. When I did so, he responded, “Dad has taken ill recently and unfortunately, we can’t have visitors now. Please G-d we will schedule with you next time.”

This year, the 25th anniversary of 9/11 converges with the onset of Rosh Hashanah.What are the odds that marking 25 years, a quarter of a century — a number considered symbolic in marking a generation, and in America’s 250th anniversary year to boot — Rosh Hashanah and 9/11 would be interwoven.

“Hurt people hurt people.” This was the considered reaction of Abdul El-Sayed to the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield last March 14. A car rammed the temple. That it killed no one was a miracle, doubly so because it rammed past the preschool.