This Erev Rosh Hashanah marks 25 years since 9/11.

When we think of that day, our minds go straight to those horrific images of the Twin Towers, perhaps because of the sheer volume of truly shocking footage beamed around the world.

But there was also a third plane. American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.

And then there was a fourth. United Airlines Flight 93.

That flight was delayed by 41 minutes. No one could have known how significant those minutes would become.

There were no smartphones back then. No WhatsApp or FaceTime. Some may remember the seatback phones on planes, where you swiped your credit card and hoped to get a connection.

Thirteen people made 37 phone calls from Flight 93. Through those calls they learned what had happened at the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. They realised their plane was part of something much bigger.

And they made a decision. They would fight back.

One of the passengers, Todd Beamer, picked up the seatback phone, swiped his card and was connected to Airfone operator Lisa Jefferson.

He told Lisa the plane had been hijacked, asked her to tell his family he loved them, and asked that she recite Psalm 23 with him.

Lisa urged Todd to stay on the line. But it was too late. The last thing she heard was a lot of commotion and Todd saying those famous words:

“Are you guys ready? Okay, let’s roll.”

Three minutes later, Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The terrorists never reached their intended target - the White House.

Forty passengers and crew members died. But because they chose to act, another mass tragedy was avoided.

These were ordinary people who found themselves in an extraordinary moment.

They took whatever they could - jugs of boiling water, food carts, plates - and used them to change the course of history.

Tomorrow, we are given the opportunity to change the course of our own history.

We have the ear of G‑d, and the ability to use whatever we have - faith, prayer, commitment - to change the course of our history.

Rosh Hashanah allows us to look honestly at the year that has passed and, more importantly, to decide what kind of year we want the next one to be.

This is our moment to ask: Who will I be in the year ahead?

It’s a New Year. A clean page. A fresh chance to become better, prouder versions of ourselves. To stand taller, live more purposefully, strengthen our families, deepen our Judaism, care more for Am Yisroel and make a difference in the world around us.

We know all too well that we cannot control everything that happens to us.

But we can control how we respond.

In the darkness that followed Chanukah, our community here in Sydney made that choice. We chose not to retreat into fear, but to respond with unity, faith, mitzvot and light. We showed Australia - and reminded ourselves - who we are.

That choice remains before us as we enter a new year:

Will we be defined by what happens to us, or by how we respond to it?

Rosh Hashanah calls on us to stop waiting for the perfect moment and start making the most of the moment we are given.

That is the gift of Rosh Hashanah: not a guarantee of what tomorrow will bring, but the opportunity to decide who we will be when it arrives.

This year, the first day of Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, and so the shofar will remain silent.

But when the shofar finally sounds on the second day, don’t just hear it.

List to what it is asking of you.

A New Year is calling. A new chapter is waiting.

G‑d is offering us the opportunity to step forward and become the people we know we can be.

Are you guys ready? Okay. Let’s roll.