Comfort (or Reconsider?) My People Central Synagogue Text Study for Shabbat Nachamu July 28, 2018 / 16 Av 5778

(1) Comfort, oh comfort My people, Says your God. (2) 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. (3) A voice rings out: “Clear in the desert A road for the LORD! Level in the wilderness A highway for our God! (4) Let every valley be raised, Every hill and mount made low. Let the rugged ground become level And the ridges become a plain. (5) The Presence of the LORD shall appear, And all flesh, as one, shall behold— For the LORD Himself has spoken.” (6) A voice rings out: “Proclaim!” Another asks, “What shall I proclaim?” “All flesh is grass, All its goodness like flowers of the field: (7) Grass withers, flowers fade When the breath of the LORD blows on them. Indeed, man is but grass: (8) Grass withers, flowers fade— But the word of our God is always fulfilled!” (9) Ascend a lofty mountain, O herald of joy to Zion; Raise your voice with power, O herald of joy to Jerusalem— Raise it, have no fear; Announce to the cities of Judah: Behold your God! (10) Behold, the Lord GOD comes in might, And His arm wins triumph for Him; See, His reward is with Him, His recompense before Him. (11) Like a shepherd He pastures His flock: He gathers the lambs in His arms And carries them in His bosom; Gently He drives the mother sheep. (12) Who measured the waters with the hollow of His hand, And gauged the skies with a span, And meted earth’s dust with a measure, And weighed the mountains with a scale And the hills with a balance? (13) Who has plumbed the mind of the LORD, What man could tell Him His plan? (14) Whom did He consult, and who taught Him, Guided Him in the way of right? Who guided Him in knowledge And showed Him the path of wisdom? (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. (25) To whom, then, can you liken Me, To whom can I be compared? —says the Holy One. (26) Lift high your eyes and see: Who created these? He who sends out their host by count, Who calls them each by name: Because of His great might and vast power, Not one fails to appear.

(1) וינחם ה' כי עשה AND THE LORD REPENTED THAT HE HAD MADE — (The first word is connected with that which means “comfort”) It was a consolation to Him that He had created man on earth, for had he been one of the heavenly beings he would have incited them also to rebel against God (Genesis Rabbah 27:4). . . . Another explanation of verse 6: וינחם AND [THE LORD] REPENTED — The thoughts of God turned from Divine mercy to Divine justice: He considered what to do with man whom He had made on the earth. Wherever this term is used in the Scripture it means “considering what to do”. Examples are: (Numbers 18:19) “nor the son of man that He should consider (ויתנחם)”; (Deuteronomy 32:36) “and reconsider (ויתנחם) regarding His servants”; (Exodus 22:14) “and the Lord reconsidered (וינחם) regarding the evil”; (1 Samuel 15:2) “I am reconsidering (נחמתי) that I have set up Saul to be king” — all these passages denote a change of mind. (3) ויתעצב אל לבו . . . The following extract from the Midrash Rabbah I am writing in order that you may know how to refute the arguments of certain heretics: A gentile once asked Rabbi Joshua, the son of Korcha, saying to him, “Do you not admit that the Holy One, blessed be He, knows what is to happen in the future?” He replied, “Yes.” The gentile retorted, “But is it not written ‘and He was grieved in His heart’?” He answered: “Have you ever had a son born to you?” The reply was “Yes.” He asked (the gentile): “And what did you do?” He replied: “I rejoiced and I made others rejoice also.” The Rabbi asked him: “But did you not know that he must die?” The heathen replied: “At the time of joy, let there be joy, at the time of mourning let there be mourning”. The Rabbi then said: “Such, too, is the way of the Holy One, blessed be He: although it was clear to Him that in the end men would sin and would be destroyed, He did not refrain from creating them for the sake of the righteous men who were to issue from them” (Genesis Rabbah 27:4).

(6) And the LORD regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened.

(17) Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Phillistines, although it was nearer; for God said, “The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.”