D’var Torah: Shabbat Nachamu – Finding comfort in a new way of thiinking

Written by Rabbi Josh Levy — 31 July 2020

As we lit the candles together to enter into Shabbat, we entered into the Shabbat known as Shabbat Nachamu.  The name is taken from the haftarah that we will read tomorrow, a special haftarah for the Shabbat after Tisha B’Av – the first of seven haftarot of consolation, of comfort, that will take us from now through to Rosh HaShanah.

Tomorrow’s passage is from Isaiah chapter 40- “Nachamu, nachamu ami”, “Comfort, comfort My people” it begins.  The tone of our year shifts as we move away from the mourning of Tisha B’Av.

So today is special.  Indeed, according to some of the Rishonim, the leading rabbis and commentators in the 11th to 15th centuries, this day had not only a special haftarah, but a special status, close to a festival day, to be marked with extra special food and celebration.

 

But nachamu is not straightforward. Where is the comfort coming from? And what form does it take?  Elsewhere in Torah the Hebrew root Nun Chet Mem – which forms the word Nechamah, comfort – has some very different meanings.

In Genesis 6 we read “vayinachem Adonai ki asah et ha-adam” – and God vayinachem regretted that God had made Adam.

In Exodus 13, God leads the people out of Egypt by a round-about route, “pen yinachem ha-am” – in case the people yinachem had a change of heart.

 

What do these three very different uses have in common?

The scholar Aviva Zornberg quotes Rashi, who understands the word nechamah – comfort as being about machshavah acheret – having a different thought.  Comfort, regret, a change of heart have in common that they represent a change in how we think about our experience.

 

And this is important for us as we think about what comfort means.

On this Shabbat Nachamu, what we celebrate is a change in mindset – we bring comfort to ourselves, by bringing a new way of thinking about our situation. A move from rebuke to reassurance, from lament to resilience, from dependence to control over our own destiny.  This comfort comes not just from outside but from within us.

 

On this first Shabbat in the journey to Rosh Hashanah – against the backdrop of so much that is still concerning, we commit to think a new thought – we turn our thoughts to making the best of the coming months, to being the best that we can be, through positive intention finding comfort and joy in our lives and our Jewish lives over the weeks ahead.

Nachamu nachamu ami – let us find comfort this Shabbat, and bring a new way of thinking to the challenges of the months ahead.