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Tonite being Ellul 23rd, is full of bitter memories. I remember it like today, seeing with my very own 2 eyes, the actual plane ram into the 2nd tower, and seeing both towers implode.
I witnessed this life shattering event & tragedy unfold before my very own eyes, before President Bush was even aware of this, his being too busy reading school to kids at a school in Florida.
I still cannot come to terms with the magnitude of this horrendous & vicious attack.
That year I was in Israel for Yom Kippur & Sukkos, the flights having just been restored & resumed prior to our departure, and this was the only topic that every single person in Israel questioned me about and conversed with me about.
“Mi Vo’Esh”, as well as “Mi b’Kitzo uMi Lo b’Kitzo” during the uNesaneh Tokeph was mind boggling that year, and has never been the same ever since.
Hello 147,
I have been thinking a lot about this too. Every year at this time takes me back to that day. This morning down here in Pennsylvania was so much like that day — pure blue sky, 70s, no humidity, just absolutely perfect to start.
I will never forget walking into my 3rd year law school income taxation class first thing in the morning and seeing the professor scribble in big letters on the chalkboard “class cancelled.” Then we all went to a lounge in the law school referred to as the Goat and stood glued to the TV to watch the footage.
We were too afraid to leave the law school and were unsure if Philadelphia would be a target, so we stayed for hours in the building and it’s center courtyard. It seemed that day as if every Penn Law student had family and friends in NYC and DC, as virtually everyone hovered in the courtyard trying unsuccessfully on the cell phone lines to confirm that loved ones were safe. I can’t even find words to describe the looks on my classmates’ faces. And all the while, I kept looking up at the clear blue sky — how did such evil come out of it that day? I could not understand. Things became very quiet in Philadelphia that day as the only things flying overhead were military planes.
Eleven years later I still cry when I take the time to recall that day. My father’s family, Slavic immigrants to New York City, helped build some of the tallest skyscrapers, including the World Trade Center.
I was 24, and all of a sudden, the world separated into “before” and “after.”
i was in downtown that day. i arrived between tower one and tower two. i was close enough to be able to tell the difference between the debris and the humans falling/jumping down. the humans fell much faster. i thought that after that americans will never be the same – that americans will finally wake up and realize that they are not living in the reality of this world but in a self-created bubble. i was so wrong.
aurora77
You probably know this already but it just hit me that you are a skilled writer. Your above post was very well written and it gripped me.
Hello WIY,
Thank you, I really appreciate what you just said — I have really tried to hone my writing skills since I was an English and writing major, then through law school and after as a child advocate. Isn’t it amazing how difficult it can be, but how beautiful it is when you can accomplish it, to catch the moment, it’s impressions, it’s feelings, with words and/or music? It is like holding a butterfly in the palm of your hand, it is so delicate and ephemeral. I am constantly awestruck by the ability of words and music, especially in a spiritual context, to move me. When it comes to a subject like 911, that sense is heightened beyond belief for me.
Hello besalel and 147,
How you have carried the agony of those images these eleven years I do not know. Having watched the events that day second-hand on TV, I am still shocked at how fresh and raw these memories are for me. I think of you and everyone who holds pain and grief from that day, and I pray that we will never know another day like that again.
aurora77
You are welcome. I know exactly what you mean. There’s a certain amazing power in words that are well written that can really have an impact on the reader.
That is so true WIY. Having a language that we can all communicate and share in is such a gift that I too often take for granted. Being able to relate on this thread to other people’s experiences as an American and more basically as a human is profound, when it comes right down to it. We are blessed that G-d gave us the means through language to share support, comfort, and console each other as we remember the unspeakable impressions made to our memories through our five senses on 911.
That year, in his pre-shofur drasha, all my rav said was “If the events of this week can’t inspire you to do tchuva, nothing I can say will either.” With that said, he klopped/banged on the table and we started musaf.
I was in YU at the time, I to get very emotional every year on 9/11 reliving the experience and memories. By chance I had happened to be at the Towers the Friday before and to think that they had collapsed four days later was mind numbing.
I will never forget one of the Rabbeim stopping morning seder to announce what had just happened and hearing the word “terror attack on US Soil” come out of his mouth. It was like being in a movie, only unfortunately this movie was real life. Going to bed that night was one of the scariest, uncertain moments of my life. No one knew what tomorrow would bring.
I very much appreciate the relevant stories/articles that YWN reposts every year on 9/11, I sit at my desk at work every year and just cry reading them.
May we all have a meaningful 9/11 and learn/daven/do a Chesed LeZecher the Neshamos that perished Al Kidush Hashem that day.
A former classmate of mine was killed in the towers that day. I was shocked when I heard and so sad for her.
I think about her sometimes.
A relative of someone I worked with who was a firefighter was also killed. I had just seen him a few days before.
I turned on the radio and heard a news broadcaster talking about the attack, speculating if it was an accident or terror. All of a sudden, she began shrieking and screaming. I couldn’t see what happened, but I was shaken to the bone hearing her scream like that. I knew something terrible had happened. It was right when the first tower fell.
I was a few blocks away, heard the planes hit, saw the fires burning and the steel glowing,the people running and later the thick clouds of enveloping dust as the buildings fell. Each year I find that I must turn off the radio since the commemoration is too painful.
This thread just brought tears to my eyes. Every year on 9/11 I sit and watch the you tube videos of the towers coming down. I’m not sure why I do this, as I sit with a knot in my stomach the rest of the day, but I think it is supremely important that we never forget that day. My father was a member of the nypd, and he was at ground zero that day and for the months following. Something that I think is so unbelievable is how many Jews were supposed to be there that day but weren’t. In my class at the time, a friends father had a dentist appointment and was running late, normaly he would have been in the office before 9am. Many people were late to work because of Slichos, ordinarily they too would have been in their offices. BH for that miracle. I hope the families who lost loved ones have found peace, those lost will never be forgotten.
President Bush knew about the tragedy before the second tower was hit.
Before entering the classroom, President Bush was informed that a plane hit WTC. He thought it was a small plane and an accident. He instructed his staff to give NY any assistance they may need and THEORY enterd the classroom to observe the reading lesson. During the lesson, in front of a classroom full of small children, reports and parents, the President was informed about the second attack. It was then clear that America was under attack.
Pres. Bush was aware the first plane was a large commercial airliner before the second plane hit.
wow, I still remember it like it was yesterday, someone told me in yeshiva the planes hit the twin towers, and I said “i dont believe you” and called “tell me” then I believed it, my rebbe was in the hospital with his wife (she was expecting then) and when he came back to shiur he told us all about it and then i watched it by a friends house over and over again, and then i got a little scared whenever I heard planes overhead
Lior, source please.
we all know tzaddikim are matzil a city, so it was a little scary that a month adter R Pam was niftar was 9/11
ca, “tell me”! Wow! Brings back memories!!
lior you and i both know it was the illuminati
147 – i cannot fathom the sites that haunt you but envy your ability to use it year after year to bring you closer to Hashem.
I am not sure, tho , why you are saying it is the yahrtzeit of bricks and metal, it is the yahrtzeit of the people who lost their lives in a most awful way.
to 147
do you even know what the shocking wake-up call message of 9-11 was from Hashem? i.e. can’t be found in a sefer or newspaper nor is it from me or a Rav)
Do you know that 9/11 is our sad day for over 2000 years? ???? ???, 9 is ???? Av is 11 ???? is 12 & ???? is 1, how does that grab you? How does that shock you? what about the phone number 911? that’s also ???? ???. that’s Americas emergency number for a minimum of 50 to 100 years, why didn’t they pick 111? are you going to tell me cause a baby might press 111 by mistake? These 2 tragedies-above-were only hint’s to tisha b’av, but it wasn’t enough to bring klal yisroel to start doing teshuva. So what happened ON tisha b’av 2005, i.e. no more hints to tisha b’av? Gush Katif/the Gaza Disengagement, it was supposed to happen on tisha b’av but they waited until Motzei tisha b’av, they did not even wait till the next morning, which means it was still tisha b’av in Chutz La’aretz (diaspora). Now let me ask you something, are these 3 tragedies-relating to tisha b’av-coincidence or is it a straight message from Hashem that its time for klal yisroel to wake up & do ?????? You think about it, this is not between people, this is between each person & Hashem.
may we finally all wake up & accept Hashems wake up calls for Teshuva ASAP (especially now in ELUL)
Joseph: No one knew it was a passenger jet when he entered the classroom. There were different rumors and reports and initial unreliable eyewitnesses were contradictory (which is why there are “Truthers” and conspiracy theorists saying crazy things). Bush could have heard possible reports, but he couldn’t have known.
i was in koillel in yerushalayim at the time and my mother phoned me to my cell and told me the twin towers were toppled and i was in shock as were all the koillel young men americans and europeans alike i went home after seider and looked for someone with access to internet and saw the whole thing i was and still am in fright of what my eyes saw of the people crammed in the windows of the top floors and then the rumble and the cloud of the first tower collapsing i think that i still suffer from the panic that got into me then i have never felt the same again at any time it went into me even more than all the bombings in eretz yisroel where i live with my family
i remember learning about the ehrlicher yidden nebbech killed on that day and all the other innocent people! i feel it like today!
that terror attack took away any feeling of stability in my heart in erets yisroel we always know we arent stable we are always under attack r”l but the twin towers the wtc in “our very own america” the land of the free and brave? how could such a thing happen? well it did and the lesson will last a lifetime! may the lessons learnt on that day be liluy nishmas all those that perished that day
to 147
then why hasnt klal yisroel woken up yet to start doing the pre-Mashiach teshuva together as a nation towards the bringing of mashiach? how bad must the situation get C”V for a person to wake up & do teshuva? over 140 gedolei Hador have left this world in only the last 3 years alone. this is not coincidence this is a mageifa. when a person doesnt wake up to do teshuva, he keeps repeatedly getting hit by his father in heaven (or his father in this world, when he won’t listen to go to sleep or do his homework, we call it a potch of love) the father has no choice & this is how Hashem feels…. he loves his children & knows this is for their benefit.
Perhaps you can assist me with a TRUE & HONEST answer
Thank you
It’s because of reverse psychology and people like you. See when a fanatic screams the truth, it’s the boy who cried wolf.
Mashiach Agent: Why do you assume people aren’t doing Tshuvah?
because theyre still posting in chat rooms 🙂
cause the tzaros in klal yisroel not only hasn’t it stopped but its getting worse R”L no need to mention how worse its getting or to put a klala on klal yisroel C”V
its very painful to someone to watch all this tzaros when he knows it could have all been avoided if klal yisroel would JUST START doing teshuva as a nation (hashem doesn’t expect us to fully repent overnight, but just wants to see a start of teshuva so that the tzaros in klal yisroel can come to an end finally)
147 – well said
I remember walking in Brooklyn that morning at around 9am and it was eerily quiet except for the endless sound of sirens far in the backround..Shortly after,not knowing what happened yet, I went into Moti’s on 16th ave to get breakfast and about 20 people were crowded around the counter looking at the news of the towers on fire..a few minutes after the towers collapsed there were tens of thousands of pieces of paper flying sidesways through the street and you could actually read the words on some of them (these were papers from offices in the towers)..Plus looking down ocean parkway towards the city was a plume of smoke for days after..Unreal day
why get so worked up about things that are not in your hands or in the hand of anyone? we are a dor of yasme dyasme we are just about keeping afloat in yidishkeit we the frum yiden are a minute amount of the whole of klal yisroel we have no neveiim we have no ruach hakoidesh we have a little bit of koiach to do and keep toire and mitzvois why look at the half cup thats empty look at the half or bit thats full there are so many good things going on that never where before hatzolo yeshivois koillelim ,tzedokoh and bikurchoilem + chaveirim etc… and from the hundred and fifty so called “gedoilem” im not sure they were all really “gedoilem” not everyone with a title and a beis hamedrash or a picture in the paper is a godoil! plus to say that those are allways petch no not allways sometimes its a zchus that the tzadik or godoil gos to ganeiden if you want marei mekoimois i can send them
so lets be mechazek klal yisroel and say they are b”h doing great of course there is lots of place for improvement but they are doing great ke”h kein yirbu
Sam2- “Why do you assume people aren’t doing Tshuvah?”
See my latest post on vaccinations! People are sending kids to schools who aren’t vaccinated.
we will NEVER forget 9/11 & the 3000 people who perished in it together will all the heroes of the police & fire departments who helped Save hundreds of lives
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