From the Rabbi

Shabbos this week is very special—not just because it is Jerry’s bar mitzvah and my anniversaries , but because it is Shabbos Nachamu—the Shabbos of comfort. Last week, we had to endure yet another Tisha Bav—and the first Shabbos after Tisha Bav is referred to as Shabbos Nachamu—named such after the immortal words of Jeremiah that we read for the Haftara, when he tells the Jewish People, “Take comfort, my people…”

As we are all keenly aware, we as a people are going through a very difficult time. Many of us saw the heart-shattering, soul-crushing videos and photos of some of the precious hostages in Gaza, who are being starved and tortured, physically and mentally. And we all feel how vulnerable we are as Jews, not truly safe anywhere, with blood libels being leveled against us and the Jewish State every single day. 

So where is the comfort? How do we continue to put one foot in front of the other? How do we carry on, and not succumb to the throes of despair? Where is this comfort that Jeremiah speaks of?

The Gemara at the end of Maskkos describes how Rabbi Akiva and the other rabbis were standing at Mt. Scopus, overlooking the Temple Mount, shortly after the destruction of the Temple. As they saw a fox walk into the holy of holies, the place where only the high priest could go, once a year on Yom Kippur, the rabbis were weeping. And Rebbe Akiva was laughing. The rabbis asked him, “Rabbi Akiva, why are you laughing?” And Rabbi Akiva responded, “Why are YOU weeping?” They responded, "A place about which it is written that a non-Kohen who approaches it will die, now has foxes walking across it, and we won’t cry?” Rabbi Akiva responded that he was laughing because the prophet Isiah issued a prophecy in which he compared Uriah the Prophet to Zechariah the Prophet. Uriah prophesied that Jerusalem would be destroyed, and Zechariah prophesied that one day, old men and old women would sit again in the streets of Jerusalem. And now that Rebbe Akiva saw, word for word, the prophecy come true of Uriah, he was sure that the prophecy of Zecharia would also come true– and this is why he could laugh. To this, the Rabbis responded, Akiva, you have comforted us, Akiva, you have comforted us.”

Just like the prophecy of destruction came true, word for word, so too we are assured that the prophecy of the rebuilding of Jerusalem will also come true.

And I might add, our comfort is in our very continued existence. The Almighty promised us that He would never forsake us or abandon us. And we have seen, as testament by our simple existence, that this promise has been fulfilled. No other nation in the history of the world has been exiled from its home and lived to tell about it, 2000 years later. 

We should have first been annihilated or assimilated out of existence. 

But we are still here because Hashem promised this would be so. 

Not only are we still here, but, 2000 years later, huge percentages of world Jewry have returned to our Homeland from where we were exiled two millennia ago. 

In every generation throughout our bitter exile, at some point, the world's nations turned against us, often in brutal ways. 

And in every generation, somehow, we persevere and carry on. 

Because Hashem is still with us, and He will never forsake us. 

That is our comfort.