The Torah warns us, “And if you treat Me as happenstance” (Lev. 26:21 — this means that if you say what happened is a coincidence, as Maimonides explains in Guide to the Perplexed) then “I will treat you with a fury of happenstance'' (verse 28 — I'll have to increase my [terrifying] hints to you, until you finally understand that there is a guiding Hand in all events). This shows that we must at least try to understand the message implied in an event, particularly such a terrible and unusual event as the destruction of the Twin Towers.
The sages say that when Titus sailed to Rome after he destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple, the sea became stormy and his ship was about to sink. Titus declared: “It seems to me that their G-d only has power over water. He drowned Pharaoh in water, He drowned Sisera in water, and now He wants to drown me in water. If He is so powerful, let him come up on land and face me in battle.”
A heavenly voice called out to him: “Evildoer! I have a little creature in my world called a gnat. Go on dry land and wage war with her.” He reached dry land, the gnat entered his brain through his nostril and it pecked inside his brain while he died a slow, agonizing death.
This story shows that G-d will teach a person filled with arrogance and violence how insignificant he is —from a place he never dreamed the lesson would come. One who rebels against the Supreme Power that oversees and formed Creation, does so because of his haughtiness. As the Torah says: ''and your heart will grow haughty, and you will forget the L-rd, your G-d.” (Deut. 8:14)
The arrogant live with a sense of “me above all'', “my strength and the might of my hand has accumulated this wealth for me'' (verse 17). He is inevitably inclined after materialism, money and lust, because he will not subjugate his impulses and desires to G-d’s will.
Today, nobody symbolizes human arrogance more than “America the Great”, and there is no place where materialism, money and lust is more prominent than there.
New York is one of America’s famous symbols, and it contains many of the world’s tallest skyscrapers. Its Twin Towers, which formed the World Trade Center, was a symbol of astonishing human achievement in the modern era. But in contrast to the Twin Towers which were forged of concrete and steel, there are two other “twins” which were forged of values and spirit, the Two Tablets of the Ten Commandments which contain universal moral values and exist as a counterforce to the modern world of permissiveness and materialism: “There is a G-d!” “You shall not kill!” “You shall not commit adultery!” “Honor your father and your mother!”“Keep the Sabbath day!” and so on.
Contemporary mankind feels threatened by the atomic bomb, non-conventional warfare and weapons of mass destruction. But with everything else, we feel we can manage perfectly fine by ourselves. We have cruise missiles, new methods to intercept missiles, etc. So Divine Providence showed everyone that with a few box-cutters that US law permitted to bring on airplanes, terrorists were able to bring down the massive Twin Towers that were the pride of New York and the symbol of human power — in the greatest superpower in the world! And with them collapsed the modern symbol of human pride through a weapon that didn’t even belong in the modern era.
Was it just a coincidence that the high-security Pentagon and the Department of Defense who are supposed to protect the entire modern democratic world, couldn’t even defend itself, and many of its employees were killed?? Isn’t this a heavenly voice declaring: I have a primitive weapon in My world and it is called a cutter. Let the modern technological superpower come and make war with it ?? …
When we look at this event as part of the overall picture of the course of events in general and of the Jews in particular, there is no doubt that by reflecting on this assault which is unparalleled in all of human history, the world is coming closer step by step to its culmination predicted by many Bible verses, when the world and everyone in it will acknowledge G-d’s kingdom. (See this in detail at the end of ''A Compilation of Prophecies.'') Fortunate is the one who wakes up and boards the train before it pulls out, instead of being left on the platform…
