we begin in the name of God will some
say this mean alright man or writing the
merciful and the compassionate it's
related also to a Jewish root word
brahim and it comes from wound the the
Arabic word for womb is RAM and so man
is a name of God which means the
merciful Rahim is the compassionate and
there is a saying in our tradition that
God has derived the womb the run from
his name a right man from his name the
merciful and in the Quran it says that
illaha illa de ser una v1r ham you
should guard yourselves against any evil
through God by also protecting your
kinship bonds the bonds of the womb the
our ham and one of the things that is
very important for us to constantly
remember is that we are been to add and
wahewa we are the children of two
parents even our material sciences now
acknowledge that we came from two
original humans I mean this is something
you don't have to be a religious person
to believe this anymore it's not
mythology it's actually what our science
tells us that we come from two people
that we are one family that we are a
human family now families always argue
and fight that's part of being in a
family and then we have the uncle that
nobody wants to come to the holiday
that's also part of being in the family
so families are problematic but they are
our families and to deny those elements
within our families is to deny reality
it's to deny something that we all know
so it's important that we remember on
this day we're coming together as a
family as a human family
d
9 911 911 has been likened to Pearl
Harbor for many Americans my father when
Pearl Harbor happened was still in high
school but at the age of 70 he was here
in rockville maryland at georgetown
preparatory school at the age of 17 he
got his mother's permission his father
had already died to sign up in his
senior year of high school he left high
school to join the military and was
actually given his high school diploma
as a deferred diploma that was the type
of sentiment that happened in the United
States at that time we had people like
Pat Tillman somebody who was an
extraordinary football player who left
an incredible career with millions of
dollars to go overseas believing in it
Pat became very disillusioned I don't
know if people are aware of that but he
came very disillusioned about what was
going on one of the things that happened
in 911 we had an extraordinary
opportunity we had the entire world with
us people were saying god bless america
in france we had the whole world with us
we had an extraordinary opportunity it
was an immense opportunity what happened
afterwards yesterday there was a program
called one day of destruction a decade
of war we have been now for 10 years in
wars there are over a million Iraqis
dead there are countless civilians will
never know their names we have the names
of our victims on on stone we won't know
the names of the Afghani victims we
won't know the names of the Iraqi
victims that there won't be memorials to
those people we have to really think
about where we're going as a country and
and the type of country we want to be
this country to me is it is my home it's
been the home of my ancestors for on my
mother's side on one side for over 200
years on my father's side in 1838 my
great-great grand
there Michael Oh Hanson came to
Philadelphia from Ireland seeking a new
world a better place getting out of the
poverty and the tribulations of Ireland
that was about to face its greatest
crisis with the potato famine I may be
the English where its greatest crises
but the the potato famine happened and
many millions of Irish began began to
come to these shores they were Catholics
the greeting that my grandfather got in
Philadelphia was the kensington riots
when Protestant Americans went and burnt
down Catholic churches scores of Irish
Catholics were killed and it was because
somebody had spread a rumor that the
Catholics wanted to replace the
Protestant Bible that was being taught
in the public schools with the Catholic
Bible this is what started the riot but
as abrahamic people we believe that good
comes out of evil that actually
transformed America because Americans
were so distraught at the fact that
people went and burnt down these
churches that they actually began to
transform the psyche and Philadelphia
actually within 10 years after those
events was a very different City because
they recognize that something had to
change these are the two ways that
people can go they can go the way of
hate they can go the way of more
factionalism more provincialism or they
can go the way of reaching out reaching
out to the other when what's
extraordinary for me about being in a
synagogue today is that the Jewish
American community and the
african-american community have done
more to transform the mental landscape
of this country than any other two
communities as far as I'm concerned we
are a more tolerant country today
because of the Jews that went down and
some of them got their heads bashed in
in the south when they went down to do
voter registration when they allied with
the african-american community and you
can read this in the history of the
n-double-a-cp and look at the unity
because the Jewish community knew that
their fate was tied with the African
American community they would not be
accepted as long as there was one group
that was not accepted they would not be
accepted and that's why they fought for
social justice in this country and that
fight continues today it continues today
what kind of America do we want do we
want to diverse America where we can
actually live up to the ideals that
might have been at the time that they
were written down that all men are
created equal they might have been not
fully understood or not even fully
implied but they were there from the
start in this country and that's the
power of this country the ideals from
the very inception of America were
powerful ideals that still resonate in
the hearts not just of Americans but of
people all over the world and we forget
the obligation that we have to live up
to our Creed in this country our Civic
Creed not a religious Creed a civic
creed that says that this is an open
space for all peoples this is an open
space for the black man the black woman
the white man the white woman japanese
chinese Hindus Buddhists Jains seeks
this is what this is what America was
about from the very inception this is
what it was about Thomas Jefferson right
down the road wrote that he wanted to
see an America that was open for the Jew
the Christian the Gentile the mohammedan
the Hindu he mentioned Mohammedans and
Hindus 200 years ago and atheists even
atheists yes part of the family
this this is this is our opportunity
this anniversary should remind us of
what went wrong some things went wrong
but what we need to continue to set
right that's what we're about as
Americans the thing I love most about
going to a bookstore is the self-help
section is the biggest section because
Americans know we're screwed up we know
it but we want to get better we want to
get better and that's why that's why the
self-help industry is the biggest
industry in in in the publishing
business because we do want to get
better but we have to know what makes us
ill and just in conclusion those people
that struck those towers on sep tember
11th in their misguided minds they felt
that they were doing something that was
justifiable they justified it in their
minds the man who recently in Oslo who
recently killed those people in his mind
he felt that he was doing something
justified there are people in Palestine
in Israel that do think heinous things
thinking in their minds that these are
justified these are happening all over
the world justice is nothing if it is
not tempered with mercy this is the
essential truth and our religions all of
them teach this to the quality of Mercy
is not strained it droppeth as a gentle
rain from heaven upon the place upon
that place it blesses him that gives and
him that takes that that is what mercy
is it blesses him that gives that him
that takes it's above the scepter throne
of kings it's it's something that
resides in the hearts of people what we
need to do is elicit more mercy to reach
out to each other the Jews the Muslims
we have a shared destiny as a people
when the Jews were threatened by
extinction in andalusia it was the
Moroccan
and the Ottomans that said come come to
us and the Jews in Morocco to this day
they acknowledge that even the Jews and
diasporic for Morocco acknowledged that
the Jews in Muslim countries have always
known that it was the Muslims that gave
them Haven when they were being
persecuted and of all communities I call
on the Jewish community to rise up to
the truths of your religion and to
recognize this type of fascistic thought
wherever it comes from whether it's from
the people that hate Islam or the haters
within Islam to recognize it for what it
is we need to come together in
solidarity and and I believe that we can
do it in chawla and this is a sign thank
you
you