Looking for Comfort
reflections on our ongoing 9th of Av
This is a commentary on the haftarah for this past Shabbat, a Shabbat called by the first word of the selection from Isaiah 40: Nahamu (be comforted , or perhaps: comfort). He begins by mentioning the 7 hafatarot of comfort that are read during the 7 Shabbatot after Tisha B’av. The selection is from a collection of divre Torah called Ohale Ya’akov.
Of the 7 haftarot of comfort there are two that begin with the word “nehama (comfort).” At the beginning of this week’s haftarah, we read nahamu nahamu ami yomar elohechem (be comforted, be comforted my people, says your God). And the haftarah of parashat Shoftim starts anochi anochi hu menachechem (It is I, I! who am your comforter). We see in the matter of comfort, Hashem is looking for initiative from us, down here on earth. We have to push and comfort ourselves (nahamu nahamu) and afterwards Hashem will come to comfort (anochi anochi). But the sorrows that we contend with are so great and overwhelming that it is so hard to be comforted, so we have no other option than to seek and find the comfort inside the angst itself, as R. Akiva taught us when he saw a fox run out from the place of the Holy of Holies (the ruins of the Temple). R. Gamliel, R. Eliezer, and R. Yehoshua began to weep and R. Akiva laughed. He said, until the prophecy of Oriah (who prophecized that Jerusalem would be like a plowed field) had been fulfilled, I doubted the prophecy of Zechariah would be fulfilled (Jerusalem’s streets would again be filled with the sounds of children playing). But now that I’ve seen the prophecy of Oriah fulfilled, I have no doubt that the prophecy of Zechariah will too be fulfilled. And the other rabbis said, Akiva you have comforted us, you have comforted us.
This idea is also hinted at in Isaiah: “be comforted, be comforted my people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem…for she has received twice as much from Hashem as all her sins.” Comfort is hidden inside the sorrows, after the punishment that the prophets promised comes double the comfort, the redemption and the salvation that the prophets preached. In fact, even more than doubled, for goodness comes in greater measure.
These days, these months - almost a year now - of the ongoing nightmare of October 7, can we look for comfort even here?
On Shabbat I was listening to a friend of mine talk of her daughter, who lives in a community close to the Gaza Strip. Many of the residents of that community were evacuated, and according to her daughter, many if not most of them will not be returning to live there.
These people cannot be blamed. They feel as though their personal safety has been torn away. Are they still to trust the government and the Army to protect them? How could they ever again feel secure in their homes only a few kilometers away from the Gaza border?
Yet there is no doubt that this reflects a major defeat for Israel and a victory for Hamas. Jews have abandoned their homes. Areas that Jews reclaimed and farmed, living communities that were established with families rooted there for generations - some of these communities have died. That is something I learned during the evacuation of Israeli communities from Gaza in 2005 - a community is a living thing, a being, flesh of flesh and bone of bone. Just as a person can be killed, so can a community - and it is a tragic thing. Jewish life has always been community based, each unique in its ideals and traditions and history. A lost community is irreplaceable, just one who takes a life destroys an entire universe.
Where then could we take comfort? Nahamu, nahamu….
I have no doubt, none whatsoever, that our people will rise to this challenge. We will be comforted by our idealistic youth - and they are idealistic - who will see it as their mission to restore Jewish life and community to these areas. Religious and non-religious, they will understand that this is their mission, in the south and in the north, to revitalize our country and our land. Clear-eyed they will be, and strong: they will be as were our fighters and farmers on the frontier in days past, and they will raise children and be leaders of our country. From this nightmare will spring the dream of renewal; they will give no quarter to our enemies and not fool themselves with illusions of peace. We will comfort ourselves, and Hashem, Hashem, he will be the one to show us comfort.