The Shabbat after Tisha B’Av, the Shabbat which just passed, is known as Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of Comfort. The name is taken from the first lines of the haftarah, where the prophet Isaiah cries out: Nachamu, nachamu ami—comfort, comfort My people. On our calendar, we are now in the 7 weeks of consolation between Tisha B’Av and Yom Kippur. This week, we will reflect on the theme of nechama, of comfort.

There is a tradition in our sacred texts. For all of the pain and anger and destruction that exists within the words of Torah, the rabbis believe deeply in the notion of a nechemta, the notion that we do not end a reading or a teaching on a note of despair.

For this reason, we finish our reading of the Book of Lamentations not with its final verse, but with the penultimate one: Return to us, O God, and we will returnRenew our days as of old. It is a message not just for the end of this day, but for the season we find ourselves entering as we begin these weeks of consolation. This time on the calendar is meant to  invite us to return to the Divine, yes, but also to ourselves, to our hopes for the year ahead (even more so this year, perhaps), and to the relationships, memories, and connections we want to create, deepen, and strengthen. Let these hopes, these visions, and these possibilities of return give us comfort—not only today, but for the future.

— Rabbi Sari Laufer