After September 11, people tell me that they’re changing and I ask “why?”

This Nation has made mistakes in the past – just the way parents make mistakes with their children – but traditionally we have been welcoming to immigrants, to people who need asylum and where possible, to those who land at our shores.

Why do Americans need to change? Over the years, I have been blown away by the kindness and generosity of strangers to those who are in need. We dig into our pockets for every telethon, every story of a family devastated by fire, flood, famine and any other catastrophic event.

Charitable acts cut into disposable income for most of us but it doesn’t matter. We do what we feel needs to be done and if we want things for ourselves, that’s not reprehensible. We are human beings with feelings, needs and desires, and our willingness to share shows that we are and have been good people all along.

Those who are our enemies and perform acts of terror against us need to change. They are selfish, uncaring and with no regard for human life. Their methods are designed to inflict the most damage on the largest amount of vulnerable people, people who would probably contribute to a fund to save their enemy’s children from starvation, if they were asked.

As we begin the month of September, we must not confuse change with repentance and our desire to be more than before. September or Tishri is host to the High Holy days or Yamin Normain – awesome days or days of awe; days of trepidation, humility, soul searching and repentance.

The blast of the shofar during Rosh Ha-Shanah symbolizes a call to us to heed the passing of time. All of this leads to Yom Kippur, a time when we pray for forgiveness and renewal, a time when we will be judged as to who is to live and who is to die. Whether we literally believe in Yom Kippur as the Day of Judgment or see it only as a symbol, we are confronted with our own mortality and the time for teshuvah or repentance.

The Day of Atonement: a shrine that even apostasy can not easily obliterate, according to Rabbi Abraham Heschel, saying that the importance is not so much in the observance of the day but the day itself, the “essence of the day” which with man’s repentance, atones for the sins of man.

So let us make this a time of atonement, of repentance or teshuvah. Change? No, we are who we are - imperfect, caring, content, discontent, angry, loving- all variables, which emerge from time to time – but we have shown that when America cries, we all shed collective tears. No, we must not change. If anything, we must be who we have always been and pray that we never change.