Did God Hear our Prayers on 9/11

Was God Listening to Our Prayer on 9/11?

On 9/11, so many of us prayed and yet so many died. Was God not listening? This question is no different than the questions asked by those hurting over the untimely or painful death of a loved one. Every human soul is infinitely precious to God. The scale of the disaster makes no difference in the nature of this question. We can ask the exact same question regarding the hundreds of thousands of people killed in Darfur or regarding a single young person killed in a car accident.

The passengers in a fourth plane discovered what had already happened and tried to take back control of their plane. Tragically they failed and died, but countless lives were saved. Many worked tirelessly in hopes of rescuing those buried.All of these events taken together certainly point towards the miraculous. One answer is that God did responded to our prayers with many miracles so that casualties were far fewer than might have been the case.

New Yorkers, not always known for personal warmth, pulled together and felt a sense of unity. Who will forget the scenes of the President rallying a badly shaken city and country? Donations and volunteers poured in, overwhelming the Red Cross and other organizations. It was an unprecedented outpouring of help, love and sympathy from Americans from all over the country. In the days that followed, there was a flood of sympathy from around the world that was both sincere and greatly appreciated. Another answer is that God responded to our prayers through the hands and hearts of others.

We should be most careful about how we approach this subject. Following 9/11 some religious voices were reported to have said that it was a punishment, then apologized several days later for the pain it cause those who were grieving. Our need to understand must not cause pain to others. We should learn from the story of Job, a righteous man, who suffered disease, death of his children and the loss of his possessions. At first his friends appropriately sat with him in silence to help comfort him. When they spoke, it was clearly not to help Job but to deal with their own legitimate questions. God was not pleased with them. It is appropriate for us to search for answers to this difficult question. We must be careful about expressing our personal answers and avoid hurting others.

When asking why G-d did not hear our prayers, we assume that had God heard and answered our prayers, few or none would have been killed. When we ask this question, it is as if we ignore the remarkable things that occurred. The attacks came relatively early in the day; there were far fewer people present than later. We read stories about people who for some reason were not there when they should have been. Some inside the buildings survived. We marveled at the heroic efforts of Fire, Police and emergency personal. The passengers in a fourth plane discovered what had already happened and tried to take back control of their plane. Tragically they failed and died, but countless lives were saved. Many worked tirelessly in hopes of rescuing those buried.

In the weeks and months and years following 9/11 both a physical and spiritual healing has taken place. The scars will always be there. However we have gone on with our lives. We will never forget, but the horror of that day did not stop or paralyze us. G-d is answering our prayers for healing.

The question is, how can God, who is omnipotent and all good permit any suffering, pain or death. This is the same question asked by Job. Some will say suffering is the result of sin. While this has been ananswer given thoughout Jewish history, since the Holocaust, it has been particularly hard to maintain. G-d heard and continues to hear our prayers. Many lives were spared. Many helped during and following the disaster. Healing has taken place. While the pain of separation is great, for those of faith in the afterlife, we know that the souls of those who died are now with God.

At least part of the answer is that if we humans are to have free choice, then suffering will occur. We cannot ask to have free choice but not suffer the consequence of those choices. According to Jewish tradition, the malachim the Divine messengers have no free will. They sing praises of God all day unless assigend a task by God. WHile these are beings incapable of sin, God prefers humans above these Divine beings. Incapable of sin, malachim are like atomatons, they cannot chose to do right or wrong. When huamsn choose to follow God, we are higher than the malachim. However, when we choose to disobey God, we sink below the lowest creature on earth.

The story of Adam and Eve is the story about Humanity deciding that it wnt to have free choice and the fact that the fruit of knowledge of good and evil was in the garden seems to indicate that God left it up to us to decide.

Of course God heard our prayers on 9/11. Things could have been so much worse. While we are very pained by the death and suffering, we should not forget this. We never ask why so much undeserved good is ours, yet it is as much a question as is the reason for undeserved suffering.

We should never stop asking these questions even though the answers may never be found. As feeling, caring, loving beings, we should never be satisfied until God makes it clear to us why there is such suffering in the world. We should not be afraid to ask questions. Our honest attmpts to answer the question will always leads us back to God.