Parashat Va’etchanan always falls on the Shabbat following Tisha B’Av. It includes the passage Deuteronomy 4:25-40, which contains a prediction that the people of Israel would sin and be forced to leave the Land. That part of the portion is like the last hot breeze blowing from the coals of Tisha B’Av.
Fortunately this is also Shabbat Nachamu, the first of three sabbaths of consolation. The Haftarah for this week is Isaiah 40:1-26 which begins:
Comfort, comfort My people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and declare to her
That her term of service is over,
That her iniquity is expiated;
For she has received at the hand of the LORD
Double for all her sins. – Isaiah 40:1-2
A midrash raises an interesting question about the grammar in the opening line. “Comfort” here is a command and it is plural.
Is God comforting Israel? If so, why is the command “Comfort” plural? And why is “comfort” repeated twice as a command? Or is Israel here commanded to comfort God, who was also traumatized by exile? Are we all supposed to comfort each other?
Who is commanded to comfort whom?
The word “comfort” gives us the name for this special Shabbat, “Nachamu.”
More thoughts on the Torah portion:
Ambassador-at-Large by Rabbi Amy Sheinerman
Shabbat Nachamu by Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild
Image by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat (Poem, with audio)
Praying the Sh’ma by Rabbi Ruth Adar
The Life You Save by Rabbi David Kasher
rabbi, each of these recommendations is like a facet on a diamond, helping me to look up and around, to wake up and listen and understand, to live and enjoy, to take a breath and contemplate – shabbat shalom and todah
Shabbat shalom, Meredith!