Shabbos Nachamu: A Double Measure of Comfort

The haftarahs for the seven weeks that follow Tisha b’Av are known as “Shiva de’Nechemta – the Seven [Haftarahs] Comfort.” Normally, words of comfort can help a person forget their sorrows and look forward to better times. In these seven weeks, the matter attains a higher level, for the longing that is inspired by hearing about the comfort that awaits us in future times can itself be instrumental in bringing those times about.

The first of the seven special haftarahs begins with Hashem’s call to comfort the Jewish people. Indeed, is after this opening call that the Shabbos receives its name: Shabbos Nachamu. The verse reads:

נחמו נחמו עמי יאמר אלוקיכם

Comfort, comfort, My people, says your God.[1]

Commenting on the double expression in our verse, “nachamu nachamu,” the midrash says that in the future, we will be comforted in double measure.[2]

This idea seems somewhat puzzling. Presumably, there is a certain point when we will be fully comforted. What is the meaning of being comforted beyond that point? What does it add?

In truth, the matter begins earlier than this, for our verse proceeds to state:

כי לקחה מיד ה' כפליים בכל חטאותיה

For she has received from Hashem’s hand a double measure for her sins.

Here too, we wonder, what does it mean to receive a “double measure” of punishment? Surely, there is a certain amount of retribution that is due for our wrongdoings, beyond which anything else is superfluous!

Rabbi Akiva’s Laughter

There is a well-known episode that related in the Gemara concerning Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues.[3] They were once passing by the Temple Mount and they witnessed foxes emerging from the sight where the Holy of Holies had stood. Upon seeing this, Rabbi Akiva’s colleagues started crying, while he started laughing! Upon bring asked why he was laughing, he responded by asking his friends why they were crying. They replied, “Seeing a site so holy that now lies in utter desolation and degradation, shall we not cry?” To this, Rabbi Akiva responded that there are two prophesies which are mentioned in conjunction with each other, one of the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and other of the future redemption. He continued, “Now that I have seen the first prophecy being fulfilled, I know that the second one will be fulfilled as well.”

These words themselves need explanation. Did Rabbi Akiva not believe that the future redemption would occur until he saw the prophecy of the destruction fulfilled? Additionally, even if he is now assured that the redemption will take place in future, surely the current state of destruction is still cause for mourning – and certainly not for laughter!

Present and Future Blessings

The Gemara states:

העולם הזה, על בשורות טובות אומר “ברוך הטוב והמטיב”, ועל בשורות רעות אומר “ברוך דיין האמת”, לעולם הבא — כולו “הטוב והמטיב”

In this world, upon hearing good tidings, one says, “Blessed is He Who is good and does good,” while upon hearing bad tidings one says, “Blessed is the true Judge.” But in the World to Come all of [the blessings] will be, “Blessed He Who is good and does good.”[4]

Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, in his commentary Tzlach to the Gemara, explains that when we say that in future times there will only be the blessing of Hatov v’’Hameitiv, this does not mean merely to say that there will be no more bad tidings, for in that case, why focus on the absence of the blessing and not on the absence of the cause for the blessing, i.e., bad tidings themselves?

Rather, the Gemara means to say that in the future we will recite the blessing Hatov v’Hametiv even regarding things over which we recited the blessing Dayan ha’Emes in this world! As if to say, in the future we will come to understand how even things that we perceived at the time to be bad were in reality for our benefit. In this light, there will be no more room for the blessing over bad tidings for we will come to recognize that all tidings were in reality good ones.[5]

Indeed, this is the meaning of being punished in double measure, for the difficulties experienced by the Jewish people in exile are in fact twofold. Beyond the hardships themselves, there is the additional difficulty of being unable to fathom how these experiences are part of Hashem’s plan and, indeed, where He is during these times. To this end, the verse states that in the future the comfort will likewise be in double measure. Not only will we be comforted in the normal sense of the word, assured that our travails are behind us and only good things are to come, but we will also come to understand how the difficult times brought all this about.

Returning to the episode with Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues mentioned above, the commentators explain that Rabbi Akiva was not talking about this faith in the future redemption occurring, but about something much deeper. His message to his colleagues was that the pairing of the two prophecies is not merely informational in nature, it is causational. The disintegration brought about by the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash is itself the means through which the future redemption will come about. In the same way that a seed disintegrates before it then develops into a plant, so too the preceding order is reduced to nothing in order to make way for the future glory of the Beis Hamikdash and the Jewish people. With his penetrating and far-reaching vision, Rabbis Akiva was able to look upon the destruction of the present and see before his eyes the assembly of the future redemption.[6]

How telling are the Gemara’s concluding words concerning that episode:

אמרו לו, "עקיבא ניחמתו, עקיבא ניחמתו"

They said to him, “Akiva, you have comforted us. Akiva, you have comforted us.”

Why did they state this twice? For like our Haftarah, they had been privy to a glimpse of the twofold comfort of the future. Not only that good times would ultimately come, but that all their current experiences were ultimately a preparation for those times.

Knowledge of the dual nature of the comfort that awaits us in the future already affords us some measure of comfort in the present, even as we are currently only witness to the destruction described in the first prophecy. May we soon merit to see the fulfilment of the second prophecy, in all its glory!

[1] Yeshayahu 40:1.

[2] See Vayikra Rabbah 10:2.

[3] Makkos 24a.

[4] Pesachim 50a.

[5] Author of responsa Nodah b’Yehudah.

[6] R’ Leib Mintzberg, Ben Melech p. 235.