Rabbi's Derasha

We began the seven Haftarot of Nechama today with Nachamu.  It will take us all of the way until Rosh Hashana.  The series comes from one Navee, one prophet, Yishayahu.  But it does not move through his messages sequentially.   It largely does but it skips around a bit.  This caught the attention of R’ Mordechai Yafe, the Levush, in the 16th century, and he shared something he found from the Abudraham.  He says that the seven weeks are a dialog.  They begin today with Nachamu, which is Hashem telling the prophets to comfort us.  But next week we’ll begin with, V’tomer Tzion, meaning that the Jews speak back.  And Tzion says, Azavani Hashem, I’ve been abandoned by Hashem.  They don’t want to hear from the prophets.  They want to hear from Hashem.

Then the prophets report this back to Hashem.  And then Hashem Himself comes, with Anochi Anochi, Hu Menechemchem -- I, I will be the one who consoles you.  And then we sing, eventually saying, Sos Asis, I will rejoice.

This back and forth means that we see through the Haftarot that Hashem models the act of Nichum, of consolation.  He takes in the scene and He adjusts, which is the essence of Nichum.  We translate the word as “consolation” but it means to generate a new thought, to reframe.  The first time the word appears in the Chumash, at the end of Parashat Bereisheeet, it means that Hashem looked upon what had become of Creation during the first millennium and was led to what Rashi calls “Machshava Acheret,” another thought.  He did not reverse things, nor did he regret what he had done.  He had another thought, a different way to understand the route to what He called destiny.  For those who are mourning, the consolation comes as a result of such a reframing. 

I mentioned on Tuesday night that we end the blessing of Boneh Yerushalayim at Mincha at the end of the Fast in a way that seems to break a rule.  Every blessing has a single subject, and therefore every blessing is supposed to end with one issue.  On Tuesday afternoon, however, we blessed that Hashem is Menachem Tzion U’vonei Yerushalayim, that He consoles Zion AND builds Jerusalem.  This double language is allowed because this reframing is part of building Yerushalayim.   

I want to share a well-known story.  If you’ve never heard it, you must hear it.  If you have heard it, it bears repeating, because it is a textbook example of reframing.  It is a story about Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazai hunter, as he emerged from the camps after liberation in May of 1945.  

His last stop had been in Mauthausen.  Many American Rabbanim were sent immediately after the war to tend to the survivors.  His camp got such a visit and the rabbi was organizing a Minyan.  The rabbi invited Wiesenthal to join but he declined.

“In the camp,” Wiesenthal explained to the rabbi, “there was one religious man who somehow managed to smuggle in a Siddur . At first, I greatly admired the man.  It was very risky to bring in the Siddur.  But then I saw that this man was renting out this Siddur to people in exchange for food.  People were giving him their last piece of bread in exchange for a few minutes with the prayerbook. This man did very well.  But I was appalled.  If this is how religious Jews behave, I’m not going to have anything to do with a prayerbook.”

The rabbi responded.  “Du dummer,” he said in Yiddish (you fool), “I understand how it looks when you focus on the owner of the Siddur.  But why don’t you focus on the people who were willing to give up a meal for the Siddur.  That’s the value of the Siddur to the faithful.”  Wiesenthal said that he went to the services the next day.

The second thought does not have to nullify the first.  It is what Rashi called “another thought,” a different way to frame the same story’s details.   

When we say the blessing every day about building Yerushalayim, we say it in the present tense.  Hashem is always building Yerushalayim.  Each time he brings us to “another thought,” He builds Yerushalayim.  We broaden our thinking, we recast things to understand more, to understand more deeply.  That always builds Yerushalayim.  The city of Yerushalayim has wholeness in its name.  We don’t touch that wholeness, we don’t rebuild that wholeness, unless we broaden our thinking.  We can’t be “dummer” (fools).  By reframing, we become wiser.