When a disaster befalls us, we have the option to withdraw or to attempt to transform the experience into a teacher for ourselves, our friends, our families and our communities. Our personal disaster may not only be our gift, it may sometimes be another's gift as well. It is our obligation to discover these gifts and to give them to others. A word, a thought, a touch may turn someone's life around and give meaning to their existence. And you may never know that you were responsible for that.
— Debbie Friedman, Yom Kippur Readings by Dov Peretz Elkins, editor