The Shabbat after Tisha B'Av is called Shabbat Nahamu (be comforted). The name is derived from the first verse of the haftarah in which the Prophet Isaiah shares a vision, to comfort and provide hope for the Jewish People.
(א) נַחֲמ֥וּ נַחֲמ֖וּ עַמִּ֑י יֹאמַ֖ר אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃
What kind of comfort is Isaiah providing? To put him in context, Isaiah is addressing the onslaught of the enemies of Israel who set the Temple ablaze and banished the Jewish People from their ancient homeland. Symbolically, though, we may read Isaiah as addressing the fierce enemies of society generally - those who riot with no purpose and wreak havoc on orderly, lawful society. We can read prophetic literature as addressing the age old problem of those who lust after power and who undermine the pursuit of building a just and equitable world or nation.
Before we turn to Prophetic literature, let's turn to Talmudic sources to see if we can derive a Jewish framework for thinking about "a world on fire."
According to the Gemara, Rabbi Akiva was able to laugh when his colleagues were crying, as they walked upon the ruins of Jerusalem and the Temple. The scenes in the Talmud's rendering remind us of the Midrash that describes Abraham as a young traveller watching the world, or a palace, burn. He sees it ablaze, on fire. The midrash suggests that the flames of injustice and idolatry burn all around him. Those very sins are mentioned in the Talmud as foundational reasons for the Temple being destroyed and city was left barren with no one to comfort her.
When we look out at our society and at our world, how can we feel comforted? Who do we need to reassure us that all will be as before - maybe even better?
Consider the two tales in the Talmud. Akiva becomes a comforter to his friends. How are we both in the roles of needing to be comforted and potentially or actively being comforters ourselves?
The two different stories about Akiva's "taking comfort" and comforting his colleagues are included below. His spiritual strength and understandings about his world are inspirations.
[The first story is in two sections because it goes from page 24a to 24b of the Talmud in Makkot. The second story is a continuation of the sugiya (Talmudic passage) on 24b.]
§ Apropos tribulations of exile and hope for redemption, the Gemara relates: And it once was that Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, Rabbi Yehoshua, and Rabbi Akiva were walking along the road in the Roman Empire, and they heard the sound of the multitudes of Rome from Puteoli at a distance of one hundred and twenty mil. The city was so large that they were able to hear its tumult from a great distance. And the other Sages began weeping and Rabbi Akiva was laughing. They said to him: For what reason are you laughing? Rabbi Akiva said to them: And you, for what reason are you weeping? They said to him: These gentiles, who bow to false gods and burn incense to idols, dwell securely and tranquilly in this colossal city, and for us, the House of the footstool of our God, the Temple, is burnt
by fire, and shall we not weep? Rabbi Akiva said to them: That is why I am laughing. If for those who violate His will, the wicked, it is so and they are rewarded for the few good deeds they performed, for those who perform His will, all the more so will they be rewarded. (END OF FIRST MA'ASEH - STORY #1)
The Gemara relates another incident involving those Sages. On another occasion they were ascending to Jerusalem after the destruction of the Temple. When they arrived at Mount Scopus and saw the site of the Temple, they rent their garments in mourning, in keeping with halakhic practice. When they arrived at the Temple Mount, they saw a fox that emerged from the site of the Holy of Holies. They began weeping, and Rabbi Akiva was laughing. They said to him: For what reason are you laughing? Rabbi Akiva said to them: For what reason are you weeping? They said to him: This is the place concerning which it is written: “And the non-priest who approaches shall die” (Numbers 1:51), and now foxes walk in it; and shall we not weep? Rabbi Akiva said to them: That is why I am laughing, as it is written, when God revealed the future to the prophet Isaiah: “And I will take to Me faithful witnesses to attest: Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Yevarkhayhu” (Isaiah 8:2). Now what is the connection between Uriah and Zechariah? He clarifies the difficulty: Uriah prophesied during the First Temple period, and Zechariah prophesied during the Second Temple period about the destruction of the Temple, as he was among those who returned to Zion from Babylonia. Rather, the verse established that fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah is dependent on fulfillment of the prophecy of Uriah. In the prophecy of Uriah it is written: “Therefore, for your sake Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become rubble, and the Temple Mount as the high places of a forest” (Micah 3:12), where foxes are found. There is a rabbinic tradition that this was prophesied by Uriah. In the prophecy of Zechariah it is written: “There shall yet be elderly men and elderly women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem.” (Zechariah 8:4). Until the prophecy of Uriah with regard to the destruction of the city was fulfilled, I was afraid that the prophecy of Zechariah would not be fulfilled, as the two prophecies are linked. Now that the prophecy of Uriah was fulfilled, it is evident that the prophecy of Zechariah remains valid. The Gemara adds: The Sages said to him, employing this formulation: Akiva, you have comforted us; Akiva, you have comforted us.
Rabbi Akiva explained to his colleagues that he trusts in God and the ancient Prophets who knew there would be destruction and empire-building. He knew there would be physical and spiritual pain, but Akiva also knew that the Jewish People and homeland would one day rise from the ashes. What sadness overcomes me when I think about how we can understand that so literally, after Auschwitz. But in a more expansive way, the powerful hope and laughter that fills Akiva gives expression to the Psalmist who wrote that one day "out mouths will be filled with laughter!" (Tehillim 126:2)
The First and Second Temples would be destroyed, according to Prophetic visions that Akiva references in the Talmud. Foxes would trot in and among the ruins. But so, too, Jerusalem marketplaces would return, what was destroyed would be rebuilt and brides and grooms would one day dance and sing in the hills of Judea!
Let's now turn back to Prophetic literature and read a narrative passage from the Book of Jeremiah. He was captured and taken to Babylonia as part of the exile.
Examine the prophetic source below with the following questions in mind:
What does Jeremiah do, to secure a better future and be comforted during his captivity in Babylonia?
What does a prophet's imprisonment symbolize, in terms of society run amok?
How do God and Jeremiah demonstrate a Human-Divine, or Divine-Human partnership in this passage?
What does our partnership look like in our time? Should we say Human-Divine or Divine-Human? Does it matter? What do we learn about achieving such a partnership from this passage?
DURING THE CAPTIVITY in Babylonia:
(6) Jeremiah said: The word of the LORD came to me: (7) Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you and say, “Buy my land in Anathoth [just north of Jerusalem], for you are next in succession to redeem it by purchase.” (8) And just as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the prison compound and said to me, “Please buy my land in Anathoth, in the territory of Benjamin; for the right of succession is yours, and you have the duty of redemption. Buy it.” Then I knew that it was indeed the word of the LORD. (9) So I bought the land in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. (10) I wrote a deed, sealed it, and had it witnessed; and I weighed out the silver on a balance. (11) I took the deed of purchase, the sealed text and the open one according to rule and law, (12) and gave the deed to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah in the presence of my kinsman Hanamel, of the witnesses who were named in the deed, and all the Judeans who were sitting in the prison compound. (13) In their presence I charged Baruch as follows: (14) Thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Take these documents, this deed of purchase, the sealed text and the open one, and put them into an earthen jar, so that they may last a long time.” (15) For thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Houses, fields, and vineyards shall again be purchased in this land.”
(16) But after I had given the deed to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD: (17) “Ah, Lord GOD! You made heaven and earth with Your great might and outstretched arm. Nothing is too wondrous for You! (18) You show kindness to the thousandth generation, but visit the guilt of the fathers upon their children after them. O great and mighty God whose name is LORD of Hosts, (19) wondrous in purpose and mighty in deed, whose eyes observe all the ways of men, so as to repay every man according to his ways, and with the proper fruit of his deeds! (20) You displayed signs and marvels in the land of Egypt with lasting effect, and won renown in Israel and among mankind to this very day. (21) You freed Your people Israel from the land of Egypt with signs and marvels, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. (22) You gave them this land that You had sworn to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey, (23) and they came and took possession of it. But they did not listen to You or follow Your Teaching; they did nothing of what You commanded them to do. Therefore you have caused all this misfortune to befall them. (24) Here are the siegemounds, raised against the city to storm it; and the city, because of sword and famine and pestilence, is at the mercy of the Chaldeans who are attacking it. What You threatened has come to pass—as You see. (25) Yet You, Lord GOD, said to me: Buy the land for money and call in witnesses—when the city is at the mercy of the Babylonians!”
(26) Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: (27) “Behold I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too wondrous for Me? (28) Assuredly, thus said the LORD: I am delivering this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he shall capture it.
Despite the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish People being banished from their Holy City, Jeremiah now holds the deed to a field in the tribal lands of Benjamin, near Yerushalyim.
There is a turning towards God and trust the Prophet expresses, and yet, he determines to do honest business and draw up deeds of purchase for the land that was just conquered! Why?! How?!
What does Jeremiah's commitment to the purchase of the field represent? How is this a symbol of the "just and righteous society?" Is this business transaction an act of faith? How? In what are we invested, as acts of faith and an expression of our commitments? Are our investments tied into any vision of the "just and righteous society" we seek to build?
Returning to Isaiah, from which this week's Haftarah of Comfort is taken, we see that no empire's destructive force can overcome God's power or plans for a future redemption. As nations emerge, leaders rise and power surges, Isaiah reminds us to take comfort in God's greatness and power. There is ONE ultimate ruler! (Nice link to this week's Torah Portion wherein we find the SHEMA - "God is One!" Deuteronomy 6:4)
The Prophet asserts: history is not for men and women to plan - entirely; God is the designer of the master plan.
How can this message of Isaiah's be of comfort for us in this time of turmoil?
(15) The nations are but a drop in a bucket, Reckoned as dust on a balance; The very coastlands He lifts like motes. (16) Lebanon is not fuel enough, Nor its beasts enough for sacrifice. (17) All nations are as naught in His sight; He accounts them as less than nothing. (18) To whom, then, can you liken God, What form compare to Him? (19) The idol? A woodworker shaped it, And a smith overlaid it with gold, Forging links of silver. (20) As a gift, he chooses the mulberry— A wood that does not rot— Then seeks a skillful woodworker To make a firm idol, That will not topple. (21) Do you not know? Have you not heard? Have you not been told From the very first? Have you not discerned How the earth was founded? (22) It is He who is enthroned above the vault of the earth, So that its inhabitants seem as grasshoppers; Who spread out the skies like gauze, Stretched them out like a tent to dwell in. (23) He brings potentates to naught, Makes rulers of the earth as nothing. (24) Hardly are they planted, Hardly are they sown, Hardly has their stem Taken root in earth, When He blows upon them and they dry up, And the storm bears them off like straw.
What does prayer to the Lord sound like when we present our case or causes?
How can we feel strengthened by God "whose wisdom cannot be fathomed?" Is it satisfying for us to cry out, plead, present our cases and take up our causes with God even if we don't get immediate answers? Is hoping in the future or expecting the future to be better what makes it ok to not get an immediate response?
What business are we doing, what endeavors are we pursuing, to forge better futures and hold up the promise of lives full of blessing? How does that work get accomplished in a Divine-Human Partnership through mitzvot?