9-11: Don’t Forget. But What Should We Remember?

Who can forget those first images we saw of smoke and flames pouring out of New York’s World Trade Center towers that Tuesday morning 25 years ago? Impossible to forget. One of the most trending phrases associated with the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9-11 is “Don’t forget”.

But don’t forget what? About one third of all Americans alive today were born after September 11th, 2001. What do you want them not to forget? That the WTC towers fell? That wicked Islamic terrorists destroyed the WTC and the Pentagon? That America was attacked? The bravery of the men of the New York Fire Department? All of the above? I will tell you what we ought not to forget. But first I must remind you that Scripture notably uses the phrase ‘do not forget’ only twice:

Remember do not forget, how you angered the Lord, your God, in the desert… (Deuteronomy 9:7)

and:

Remember what Amalek did to you…. obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens, do not forget. (Deuteronomy 27:17-19)

In both instances, the admonition of “do not forget” is preceded by the directive “remember”. The Torah is letting us know that “do not forget” is mostly meaningless unless we first specify exactly what should be remembered.

And what should be remembered is the eternal struggle between civilization and barbarism. In the mid-twentieth century, Nazi values represented barbarism and, in the twenty-first, barbarism is mostly represented by Islamic values.

Here are three ways to distinguish between the values of barbarism and those of civilization:

1: Civilization values commerce not conquest. Commerce comes from human communication, collaboration, and creation. It raises living standards for all and allows people to devote more of their time to higher pursuits rather than merely to the mechanics of survival. People who trade don’t raid.

2: Civilization values men that are masculine. Real men are neither thugs nor wimps. Masculine men protect, provide, and procreate. They promote life by defending their families and their nations even at risk of death. They work not just to secure comforts for themselves but to take care of their families. They bring children into the world, and just as importantly, they raise those children into strong, healthy, and good men and women.

3: Civilization values the Torah. Civilization is the practical, real-world result of Scripture. When the timeless truths that descended to the world at Mt. Sinai over three thousand years ago are projected onto a large screen, civilization is what we see. Whether civilization is built in Africa, Asia, or Europe, it is built on those unchanging values and Judaism is the link to those permanent principles.

When we saw the Twin Towers attacked on 9-11, we saw an attack on far more than office space. The World Trade Center represented commerce, aspiration, technological achievement, international cooperation, and the extraordinary ability of strangers to work together peacefully for mutual benefit. The Islamists did not randomly choose a tall building; they struck a symbol of the commercial civilization they despised. Business is not merely about money; it is foundational to civilization.

When we saw the Twin Towers attacked on 9-11, we watched two radically different understandings of men and masculinity collide. One group of men sacrificed other people’s lives for their ideology of death; another group of men climbed up the burning towers to save other people’s lives.

When we saw the Twin Towers attacked on 9-11, we didn’t realize that the dense black smoke gushing up from the burning buildings echoed the smoke pouring from the crematoria of Auschwitz. Only now do we know that 9-11 ushered in a quarter-century of more Jew hatred than we have seen since Adolf Hitler shot himself on April 30th, 1945.

So, yes, don’t forget 9-11. But remember how fragile civilization is. Remember that barbarism always wants to destroy civilization. Remember that barbarism, whether promoted by Nazis, Islamists, or socialists all want the same thing: They want to destroy commerce, masculinity, and the path to that destruction lies through destroying Judaism.