Torah Portion

Torah Portion: Vaetchanan Shabbat Nachamu

Rabbi Brahm Weinberg

I once heard of a Jewish summer camp that commemorated the day of Tisha B’Av (the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av) with a concert full of singing and dancing.  I was shocked!  This practice seemed so antithetical to the feelings of Tisha B’Av. After all, Tisha B’av, which we commemorated this week, is the saddest day in the Jewish calendar!  It is the day on which, according to our tradition, both the first and second Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed (in 586 BCE and 70 CE respectively), we lost our independence, and we were exiled from our land leading to countless tragedies in Jewish history. With that in mind, one must wonder how a Jewish summer camp could commemorate the day by singing and dancing!  How does joy and celebration fit in with the sadness of Tisha B’Av?
While I still don’t think singing and dancing on Tisha B’Av is appropriate, I have come to realize that perhaps the lines of sadness and joy, of mourning and consolation on Tisha B’Av, are not as clear cut as one would think. I would like to share with you just how blurred the lines can be and what it means for us.
Despite the overwhelming sadness of Tisha B’Av, the Shabbat immediately following it, the Shabbat we celebrate this week, is called “Shabbat Nachamu, The Sabbath of Consolation.” This Shabbat we read the words of the prophet Isaiah:  “Be consoled, be consoled my people said the Lord” (Isaiah 40:1).  How we can move from an overwhelming sadness and mourning of a day like Tisha B’Av to a Sabbath of happiness and consolation?  How can we cry over the countless tragedies of Jewish history on one day and then be consoled the next? What is the consolation all about?  This week we have mixed a measure of joy into the sadness:  Why?
The question becomes even stronger when we examine the practices of Tisha B’Av itself.
Our tradition tells us that the most severe tragedies of Tisha B’Av occurred not in the morning but in the afternoon of the ninth of Av when the Romans in the Second Temple period set fire to the Temple leaving behind only the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, the Kotel, which can be seen today in Jerusalem.  Yet, it is specifically in the afternoon of Tisha B’Av that we introduce many aspects of consolation into our day!
Here are just two examples:  In the afternoon of Tisha B’Av we add a special prayer to our liturgy called “nachem” asking G-d for consolation!  We don’t say it in the evening or the morning but in the afternoon, at the height of the period of destruction, we say it!  Furthermore, many Jews sit on low chairs just as some do in a shiva house to symbolize our status as mourners.  In the afternoon, everyone is required to get up from their low chairs and sit on regular seats as if the mourning is over, as if we have moved from sadness to consolation! We see again that the lines of mourning and consolation seem to be blurred:  Why?
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik z”l suggests that we find comfort during the day of such tragedy because the tragedy could have been much worse.  We are thankful and almost joyous that it was the Temple that was destroyed and not the Jewish people as a whole.  The Babylonians and the Romans on Tisha B’Av could have easily wiped out not just a building of stone and wood, but a living breathing nation were it not for the protection that G-d afforded us.  We are consoled in the midst of our tragedy by the knowledge that we were saved. Yes, being exiled from our land, wandering the four corners of the earth, suffering countless pogroms and persecutions is horrifying but we survived and that mitigates our sadness.
The reason the lines between mourning and consolation, between sadness and joy have been so blurred this week is because if you take a look at the day of Tisha B’Av and if you take a look at Jewish history it includes both feelings:  It includes the sadness of so much destruction, but it also includes the joy of seeing our people survive and flourish despite it all.
The question we are left with on this Shabbat of Consolation is now that we have seen the tragedy and the consolation, now that we have seen ourselves survive what will we do with the chance we have been given?  What will we do to move past survival to thrive, to grow, to build, and to dream?  May we suffer no more tragedy and may we live to see each of those dreams come to fruition.

Rabbi Brahm Weinberg is spiritual leader of the Young Israel of West Hartford.

SHARE
RELATED POSTS
Torah Portion – Toldot
Torah Portion – Parshat Emor
Torah Portion – Vayishlach

Leave Your Reply