Nachamu: Who Comforts Whom?

 

“Nachamu nachamu ami – Comfort, oh comfort, my people.” (Isaiah 40:1)

After the trauma of Tisha B’Av, God offers solace and consolation. For the next seven weeks, we will read Haftorahs about various elements of what this comfort entails.

I believe these words can also be read as directed towards us. “My nation, you must console each other.” In the aftermath of the destruction of the Temple, an aggrieved nations longs for the embrace of our Father in heaven. At the same time, each of us must find ways to be a source of comfort for those around us. We are to become a nation of consolers.

We know that, in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish reality changed. Ritually, we shifted away from sacrifices towards prayer. Geographically, we moved from the Temple into shuls. Communally, we became more decentralized into individual communities. Rabbi Eliyahu Kramer, the Vilna Gaon, notes that after the destruction, there is a relational and attitudinal shift as well. The Mishnah in Avot (1:2) teaches that the world rests upon three things: Torah, avodah (service), and gemilut chasadim (acts of kindness). The Vilna Gaon says that all three of these are only found during Temple times. After the destruction of the Temple, we don’t have full access to Torah or avodah. Nowadays, all we have is chesed.

Nachamu, nachamu ami – People, comfort each other. Say hello to each other. Smile at each other. Make someone else feel better through words and deeds.

Rabbi Israel of Rizhin (1796-1850) once asked a student how many sections there were in the Shulchan Aruch. The student replied, “Four.” “What,” asked the Rizhiner, “do you know about the fifth section?” “But there is no fifth section,” said the student. “There is,” said the Rizhiner. “It says: always treat a person like a mensch.”

Shabbat Nachamu is a call to comfort and consolation. Yes, we turn to God and await His role in the redemption. At the same time, we have comfort to provide. Each of us can turn to one another with a smile, a friendly greeting, acts of chesed, or just be a mensch.