Post­ed by William Sudry

As the tenth anniver­sary of the Sep­tem­ber 11th attacks approach­es, the scars left by that tragedy linger and con­tin­ue to remind. Amer­i­cans of every stripe will come togeth­er next month to grieve and to reflect.

These events force us to revis­it some of the big ques­tions – what to do in the face of par­a­lyz­ing cat­a­stro­phe? how to think about deep­est evil? – that demand a response.

A forth­com­ing vol­ume marks the 9/11 decen­ni­al and con­fronts these mat­ters head-on: Con­tend­ing with Cat­a­stro­phe: Jew­ish Per­spec­tives on Sep­tem­ber 11th, edit­ed by Michael J. Broyde (Beth Din of Amer­i­ca Press and K’hal Publishing).

Con­tend­ing with Cat­a­stro­phe is divid­ed into two parts, bring­ing two aspects of Jew­ish tra­di­tion, the prac­ti­cal and the intel­lec­tu­al, to bear on the events and their after­math. The first sec­tion repro­duces a sam­pling of nev­er-before-seen doc­u­ments and dis­cuss­es prob­lems of Jew­ish law raised by the attacks, pre­sent­ing the real­i­ty of a work­ing reli­gious legal sys­tem deal­ing with press­ing issues. The sec­ond sec­tion is a col­lec­tion of reflec­tive essays on Jew­ish ethics and the­ol­o­gy by lead­ing Ortho­dox Jew­ish rab­bis and lay lead­ers from the Unit­ed States and Israel.

The book con­cludes by intro­duc­ing prayers for the recov­ery and recog­ni­tion of the emer­gency work­ers at Ground Zero and in mem­o­ry of the vic­tims of the attacks, both com­posed for this vol­ume. A prayer for the safe­ty of the Unit­ed States Armed Forces sta­tioned around the world is also included.

Con­tend­ing with Cat­a­stro­phe: Jew­ish Per­spec­tives on Sep­tem­ber 11th, due out this month, can be pre-ordered here. (For free ship­ping and a 10% pre-pub­li­ca­tion dis­count, use the code AFK10 at checkout.)