Take Comfort My People

Yesterday we marked Tisha B'Av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar marking the destruction of the ancient Jewish Temples in Jerusalem and the enormous suffering of our ancestors through horrific sieges, starvation, slavery and exile.

This Shabbat is the first of the seven Shabbatot of consolation, on each of which we read a comforting chapter from the Biblical Prophet Isaiah on the subject of redemption and a brighter future.

Even in the dark days of the first destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonian king Nebukhadnetzer, described in harrowing detail by the prophet Jeremiah in the biblical book of Eikhah (Lamentations), he finds words of hope in the middle of one of the greatest calamities to ever befall the Jewish people.

Centuries later Rabbi Akiva viewing the Roman destruction of the rebuilt and restored second Jerusalem Temple sees a fox scampering through the ruined Holy of Holies, a sign of the complete desolation of the the city, it's civilisation crushed, wild foxes and jackals encroaching on the holy site as the wilderness claims the remnants of what was once a bustling religious and civic centre.

All around him the surviving Jews are mourning the terrible disaster, weeping for the thousands of dead, their city, the crushing of Jewish sovereignty and the obliteration of their ancient religious centre. Every aspect of Jewish life in their ancient holy city and political capital has been decimated by the legions of Rome.

But Rabbi Akiva doesn't cry and doesn't mourn. He sees that the worst has happened, the nation has reached rock bottom and he is already looking to the future, to redemption, to the Jewish people with God's help regrouping and rebuilding, to Jerusalem's eventual restoration and rise from its ruins.

My mother's Yahrzeit (anniversary of her death), as well as the births of three of my sons and my own birthday and that of my grandmother fall within these seven weeks of Nehama, consolation. My mother always felt a deep connection to these seven readings of comfort and redemption, they were some of her favourite biblical verses and she knew them all by heart, quoting them often.

She was also a great lover of music and found great joy, solace and inspiration in songs which she felt expressed these positive messages of hope and restoration. She loved Neshama Carlebach's beautiful rendition to her father, R' Shlomo Carlebach's melody, of this week's haftara reading from Isaiah 40 "Nehamu, nahamu ami" - Take comfort my people.