Analyzing the past is like making a medical diagnosis: it may be scientifically correct, but it does not ease the pain.
If we are to learn from this terrible experience (of 9/11), we should begin by recognizing the great need to re-humanize contemporary society.
The megalopolis civilization is, in its very nature, built on lonely strangers, solitary individuals and insular nuclear families.
Thus, we are always living with “others.”
They may be acquaintances or even relatives, but they are still basically strangers.
We need to see these others as people to whom we must reach out, in whom we must be interested.
We can renew the very old habit of asking, really:
Who are you, stranger?
What do you care about?
What do you need?
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz