Lamentations 9/11

I posted this last year but it is worth posting again.

Via the Washington Post’s On Faith:

Lamentations: 9/11

I live in New York City. Two friends, including someone at whose wedding I had recently been the rabbi died in the World Trade Center. The acrid smell came through my apartment windows for days and sacred ashes, which I wiped away with tears, fell on my window sills for weeks.

My children who were 13 and 10 at the time were cut off from me and my wife as they could not get home from school on 9/11 because the subways were closed. The father of one of my daughter’s playmates from the time she was a toddler was killed on 9/11. The fear we felt was unforgettable and the innocence our kids lost forever so very sad.

So what message would I like to send to religious extremists? No words at all. Simply the following chant (using an ancient melody used to chant the Biblical book of Lamentations which describes the destruction of Jerusalem) of actual final cell phone conversations of people, who in the face of terror and the dearness of the vanishing moment, showed no anger or any desire for revenge but simply and heroically witnessed a yearning to love and the faith that love ultimately swallows up death.

Click here to listen to Rabbi Kula chanting.

Posted by Irwin Kula on September 15, 2007 4:48 PM

9 Responses to “Lamentations 9/11”

1. RememberNovember says:

   September 11, 2008 at 3:42 pm

   my own 9-11 story:

   http://picoland.livejournal.com/297951.html#cutid1
2. JeffersonDavis says:

   September 11, 2009 at 5:26 am

   May God rest the souls who perished eight years ago, and my He comfort those they left behind.
   This wish goes to all of those in New York and Washington and elsewhere who perished on September 11, 2001; as well to those who have perished on the battlefield fighting against those who brought such pain and aguish to America.

   May God bless each and every one.
3. Don Quijote says:

   September 11, 2009 at 7:16 am

   May God rest the souls who perished eight years ago, and my He comfort those they left behind.

   May Allah rest the tens of thousands of souls that we have sent his way in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last seven years, and may He comfort those they left behind.

   Assuming he is not too busy resting the Millions of Souls we sent his way in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the sixties and comforting those they left behind.

   May God bless each and every one, and may He enter the hearts of those who kill innocents for the gain of their extreme ideology – no matter their faith.

   He is going to have his work cut out with the White American Capitalist Christians, not much besides hatred and fear seems to enter their heart.
4. Don Quijote says:

   September 11, 2009 at 7:33 am

   CHILE: THE OTHER 9/11

   < a href=”http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/Chile_9_11_73.html”>Declassified documents reveal the US government's role in the Pinochet coup>

   The Other 9/11: The United States and Chile, 1973
   

   But what is very clear in all of this is that the coup in Chile is exactly what Kissinger's boss wanted. As Nixon put it in his ineffable style, “It's that son of a bitch Allende. We're going to smash him.” As early as October of 1970, the CIA had warned of possible consequences: “you have asked us to provoke chaos in Chile. … We provide you with a formula for chaos which is unlikely to be bloodless. To dissimulate the U.S. involvement will be clearly impossible.” The Pinochet dictatorship lasted 17 long and brutal years. According to the Chilean Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, its victims numbered 3,197. Thirty years after its initiation, the coup of 1973 remains deeply etched in collective memory. It is unlikely that this book will be the end of the story.

   Chile and the United States:
   Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973

   These documents include:

   ** Cables written by U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry after Allende's election, detailing conversations with President Eduardo Frei on how to block the president-elect from being inaugurated. The cables contain detailed descriptions and opinions on the various political forces in Chile, including the Chilean military, the Christian Democrat Party, and the U.S. business community.

   ** CIA memoranda and reports on “Project FUBELT”–the codename for covert operations to promote a military coup and undermine Allende's government. The documents, including minutes of meetings between Henry Kissinger and CIA officials, CIA cables to its Santiago station, and summaries of covert action in 1970, provide a clear paper trail to the decisions and operations against Allende's government

   ** National Security Council strategy papers which record efforts to “destabilize” Chile economically, and isolate Allende's government diplomatically, between 1970 and 1973.

   ** State Department and NSC memoranda and cables after the coup, providing evidence of human rights atrocities under the new military regime led by General Pinochet.

   ** FBI documents on Operation Condor–the state-sponsored terrorism of the Chilean secret police, DINA. The documents, including summaries of prison letters written by DINA agent Michael Townley, provide evidence on the carbombing assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in Washington D.C., and the murder of Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires, among other operations.

   Let us not forget the original 9/11.
5. Leonidas says:

   September 11, 2009 at 7:46 am

   Remembering 9-11 and the bastards who crahed into New York civilian areas and into the Pentagon. Remembering the brave folks on Flight 93 and how much better they are than people who see gang raping 13 year old girls for holding a boys hand as acceptable.

   It ain't over yet folks, there is a long fight ahead of us to help people escape from barbarism.

   Let's Roll.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg6kLk38GTE

   “Let's Roll”

   I know I said I love you,
   I know you know it's true,
   I've got to put the phone down,
   and do what we got to do.

   One's standing in the iselway,
   Two more at the door,
   We've got to get inside there,
   Before they kill somemore.

   Time is runnin' out,
   Let's roll.
   Time is runnin' out,
   Let's roll.

   No time for indecision,
   We've got to make a move,
   I hope that were foregiven,
   For what we got to

   How this all got started,
   I'll never understand,
   I hope someone can fly this thing,
   And get us back to land.

   Time is runnin' out,
   Let's roll.
   Time is runnin' out,
   Let's roll.

   No one has the answer,
   But one thing is true,
   You've got to turn on evil,
   When it's coming after you,
   You've gota face it down,
   And when it tries to hide,
   You've gota go in after it,
   And never be denied,
   Time is runnin' out,
   Let's roll.

   Let's roll for freedome,
   Let's roll for love,
   We're going after satan,
   On the wings of a dove,
   Let's roll for justice,
   Let's roll for truth,
   Let's not let our children,
   Grow up fearfull in there youth.

   Time is runnin' out,
   Let's roll.
   Time is runnin' out,
   Let's roll.
   Time is runnin' out,
   Let's roll.
6. Civil_Voice says:

   September 11, 2009 at 8:28 am

   Very interesting reading. The first link, however, includes a BBC interview with Nick White, who states the the US was not involved with the coup, that the US had known only that “something” was going to happen.
   It is clear that we wanted a coup, but are we responsible in the same way as if we'd flown the jets ourselves?
   As well, the victims of 9/11/01 were civilians. The goal was to murder civilians and emergency personnel. How is this similar?
7. Don Quijote says:

   September 11, 2009 at 8:31 am

   Conviction in the Murder of Victor Jara — 35 Years Late

   Less than 24 hours into the coup, Victor Jara was arrested in a mass round-up at the university where he was working. He was recognized by the guards and kept in a group of prisoners considered of special interest.

   For three days, he was held captive and tortured, while around him fellow prisoners were beaten, deprived of food and sleep, and sometimes simply gunned down in fits of madness. Given the army's interest in him, Jara must have known he would never leave the building alive.

   But to the end, Jara defied his captors, who at one point broke his hands, mocking him with orders to play his guitar. And still, Jara tried to rally his fellow captives' spirits — at least once by singing, in full voice, from deep in the locker rooms turned into torture chambers, loud enough for other prisoners in the crowded arena to hear, still giving them heart with his voice.

   On September 15th, he wrote what would become his last words, knowing he was soon to die, and that his loved ones were facing years of danger. Even with broken hands, Jara still found the strength to write one last poem, hoping that someday he might share even this, telling us that these things do happen, warning us, crying on our shoulders, communicating with people whose faces he would never see. The words are desperate and despairing. But writing them… was a final act of hope. For all of us.

   Jara's final words, loosely translated:

   How hard it is to sing when I must sing of horror.
   Horror which I am living, horror which I am dying.
   To see myself among so much and so many moments of infinity
   In which silence and screams are the end of my song.
   What I see, I have never seen
   What I have felt and what I feel
   Will give birth to the moment…

   And just as his poem turned toward renewal — even now, turning toward hope — Jara was picked out by guards. As he was taken away, he shuffled the scraps of paper to another prisoner, who eventually smuggled the words out in his shoe. Jara was machine-gunned to death moments later.
8. Civil_Voice says:

   September 11, 2009 at 10:07 am

   A sad story, to be sure. Sadder still is that the story could be rewritten a thousand times with the names changed.
   I will assume that you have some connection with the unfortunate horrors of this history. For that I am sorry.
   But I cannot apologize, because I do not see the connection, yet, to the US government.
9. JeffersonDavis says:

   September 16, 2009 at 3:25 pm

   You're right, Don Quixote…. ALL Christians are hateful and fear-mongering. Just like ALL Muslims are terrorsists. All Amercians of hispanic decent are illegal aliens……
   (Sarcasm).

   Once again… Another liberal unable to stomach a simple prayer for peace, and a simple comdemnation of ANYONE who kills innocents for gain in their extremist views.

   You can look at Vietnam, look at Afghanistan, look at any war fought by Americans. Anyone, be they Viet Kong or even rogue American soldiers who dishonor their code should be condemned if they engage in such activities. Period.
   I hate war. I've fought in three of them. However, my brothers and I ALL adhered to the code of conduct and rules of war. When Al Qaida insurgents plant a roadside bomb, they do so as well (since they target military). A car bomber who blows up a market full of 300 people in order to kill perhaps 2 enemy interests, is unacceptable. Even you, Don, should admit that.