Console, oh console My people
Pinchas
Leiser
There are a number of Sabbaths
on the Jewish calendar that are named for their haftorah readings. The Sabbath between Rosh HaShanah and Yom
Kippur is called Shabbat Shuva; the Sabbath before Passover is called Shabbat
HaGadol, and the Sabbath before the 9th of Av is called Shabbat
Hazon.
The Sabbath following the 9th
of Av, when we read the parasha Va’Et’hanan, is also named for its haftorah
(Isaiah 40): Shabbat Nahamu.
In this devar Torah, I
would like to investigate the Hebrew root NHM, which appears frequently in
Scripture and which, apparently, takes on different meanings.
Already in parashat Bereishit,
following the story of the creation of the world and of humanity, after the
expulsion from Eden, Cain’s murder of Abel, and the recounting of the entire book
of the generations of Adam in chapters 5-6, we read:
The
Lord saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by
his mind was nothing but evil all the time. And the Lord regretted [vayinahem] that He had made man on earth, and His
heart was saddened. The Lord said, "I will blot out from the earth the men
whom I created - men together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the
sky for I regret [nihamti] that I made them (Bereishit 6:5-7).
However, just a few verses
earlier we read in connection with Noah’s birth:
And
he named him Noah, saying, "This one will provide us comfort [yenahamenu] from our work and from the toil of our
hands, out of the soil which the Lord placed under a curse." (Bereishit 5:29)
The Holy One blessed be He mitnahem [regrets] having created
man and Lemekh; Noah’s father is mitnahem
[comforted] by the birth of Noah, who was said to have found favor in
the eyes of the Lord.
In contemporary Hebrew, we only
use the root NHM in the sense of consolation,
but not in the sense of regret.
When we engage in nihum aveilim [comforting
mourners], the formulaic expressions we use are “May the Omnipresent yinahem [console] you amongst the
mourners of Zion and Jerusalem” and “Tenahamu [may you be consoled] by Heaven.”
Starting with Nahamu,
the haftarot following the 9th of Av, are called the Sheva
de’Nehamuta [“The Seven of Consolation”].
At first glance, it seems that in every one of these haftarot the root
NHM appears in relation to consolation following disaster as a way of dealing
with distress. It is, then, interesting
to see if the commentators tried to explain the various meanings of NHM by way
of a common denominator and a new understanding.
Rabbi S. R. Hirsch (on
Bereishit 5:29) enlightens us with his discussion of the various senses of the
root NHM, and their common basis:
This root
has a peculiar meaning. In the pi’el:
to comfort, in nifal: to be comforted;
but also: to
alter your mind or your decision regarding some intended action; finally, also:
contrition, remorse at something which has occurred as in No man regrets his
wickedness (Jeremiah 8:6) and Now that I have turned back, I am filled
with remorse (31:18).
The basic
underlying meaning is: to change one’s mind, hence repentance and altering
one’s decision. Consolation is also a
complete reversal of the previous feeling regarding an occurrence…NHM [similar
to Noah], is a movement which is reversed, like nah. Hence haniham, also where it means
repentance, seems to be connected with the complete giving up of a direction
hitherto held. But that is also
consolation. A painful loss sets us in
motion internally; consolation brings us to rest, closes the gap, and stays the
motion. (Levi translation)
Rabbi Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio,
who was almost a member of Rabbi Hirsch’s generation, living just a little
earlier than him in northeast Italy, writes in his Torah commentary (on
Bereishit 6:6):
And the Lord regretted [vayinahem] – all expressions using the word nehamah
refer to a change of will from one plan to an opposing plan, sometimes from bad to good, sometimes the
opposite. It is known that God’s will is
unchangeable, but the matter is like this: All of the blessed Lord’s decrees
and promises are made on the condition that those who benefit from them remain
deserving of them and do not change.
When the decree is categorical and unconditional, an oath, or a sign
accompanies it, or it is formulated as advice.
In the creation story God decreed that the laws of creation would remain
in effect forever, and that is why it is said of them that they are good. Similarly, He decreed that the human race
would be fruitful and multiply and conquer the earth, but all of that was
conditional upon humans observing the commandments of reason, avoiding
oppression and illicit sex. God knew
from the start that they would corrupt their ways and deserve annihilation –
accordingly, He did not swear to those decrees at the time of the creation, but
only swore to them to Noah following the flood.
From this we can understand that the calamities of the flood did not
constitute a change in the Divine will, but rather a change in those affected
by it. Because of their evil ways they
no longer merited the benefits promised to them by God at the beginning of
creation. However, since God did not
reveal this secret to humanity when He blessed it saying be fruitful and
multiply, we thought that it was as if God had regretted what He had said…”
In addition to explaining the concept NHM as referring to a change of
will in either direction, Reggio tries to grapple with the theological problem
that arises from biblical passages whose plain meaning seem to refer to changes
in God’s will regarding the creation of humanity. He does this by attributing the change to
human beings. The change associated with
God actually occurs in the consciousness of humans and derives from their
unacceptable behavior.
The common element in these two 19th century commentaries is
that the root NHM can be interpreted in a wide fashion. All of the cases concern change; sometimes it
is a change of will – a change of a decision already taken or about to be
taken. Sometimes it is a change of
mindset and of emotion following an event.
In other words, nehama can be defined as a new vision of reality
that requires that a decision already taken be changed, or which creates a
different relationship of consciousness or of emotion that lends new
significance to an event beyond our control.
This new definition allows us to contemplate Isaiah’s prophecies of nehama
from a developmental perspective.
Only in the seventh week, in the haftorah for parashat Nitzavim (or
Nitzavim - VaYelekh), on the Sabbath before Rosh HaShana do we read in chapter
61: I greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being exults in my God, for He
has clothed me with garments of triumph, wrapped me in a robe of victory. There were earlier attempts at consolation,
but the people’s response to the effort to console them in Nahamu (the
haftorah of Va’Et’hanan, Isaiah 40) was: The Zion said: the Lord has left
me, my Master has forgotten me (the haftorah for Ekev, Isaiah
42). The haftorah for Ekev ends with
Isaiah 51:3:
Truly the
Lord has comforted Zion, comforted all her ruins. He has made her wilderness like Eden, her
desert like the Garden of the Lord.
Gladness and joy shall abide there, thanksgiving and the sound of music.
However, the response of the haftorah
for Re’eh (Isaiah 54:11) is:
Unhappy,
storm-tossed one, uncomforted! I will
lay carbuncles as your building stones and make your foundations of sapphires.
And so the process of
consolation continues until the seventh week, when the people finally agree to
be comforted.
In the end of the tractate
Makot (24b) we are told of how Rabban Gamliel, R. Eliezer ben Azariah and R.
Akiva were walking along, and when they ascended to Jerusalem and reached the
Temple Mount, they saw a fox emerge from the area of the Holy of Holies:
They began to cry, while Rabbi Akiva
laughed.
They said to him, “Why are you laughing?”
He responded, “Why are you crying?”
They said to him: “If from the place about
which it is written, And the stranger who enters there, shall die, now foxes prowl over it, should we not cry?”
He said to him: “For that very reason, I am
laughing. As it is written, I will
bring two reliable witnesses regarding my People, Uriah the Priest and
Zachariah son of Yevarech'yahu (Isaiah 8:2). What does Uriah have to do with
Zachariah? Uriah lived in the time of
the First Temple, and Zachariah in the time of the Second Temple! But Scripture makes Zachariah's prophecy
dependent on Uriah's. By Uriah it is
written, Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed under like a field.
(Micah 3:12). In Zachariah it is
written, Yet again, elderly men and elderly women will sit in the streets of
Jerusalem, (Zachariah 8:4). Until I
saw the fulfillment of Uriah's prophecy, I had some doubt as to whether
Zachariah's prophecy would come true. Now that I have seen Uriah's prophecy
fulfilled, I know that Zachariah's prophecy will also be fulfilled.”
They spoke to him in these words, “Akiva, you have
comforted us. Akiva, you have comforted us.”
Rabbi Akiva different reaction
and his ability to console [nahem] his fellow Tanaim is connected to his
ability to hitnahem [change his attitude], to look at reality in a
different way, to take into account not only static reality, but also the
possibility of that reality changing. R.
Akiva’s ability to view reality as dynamic springs from his attitude towards
historical reality as an open and changing text.
It seems that we sometimes need
time in order to be consoled and see reality differently. The transition from a crisis to a situation
in which we may recover from the crisis is a slow process because reality does
not change and we are not automatically blessed with the ability to accommodate
to a disappointing reality and to find consolation in it.
Sometimes, someone who is
blessed with consoling/changing qualities can influence his environment and
help it look at apparently harsh reality in a different way.
These words are written in
difficult days in which the north of our land has burst into flames. Many people have been hurt and forced to
leave their homes; soldiers have been killed and injured, and the welfare of
the abducted soldiers is a cause for great concern. Similarly, people from among our Lebanese
neighbors have been hurt, including children who have no part in our war
against the cruel enemy. Therefore, we
hope and pray that by the time these words are published there will be a new
reality in our country and in our region.
These hard events require
healing and consolation. I am troubled
that some of the rabbinic voices heard in the media are not shocked by the
killing of innocent children.
We need to undergo a process of
nehama, and we need a spiritual leadership that can – like Rabbi Akiva –
see the situation “differently,” that can change and console and sew hope, love
and consolation in hatred’s place.
