Seven of Consolation

Torah study or prayer? Man or Woman? A transcendent perspective or an emphatic view? Two pathways through life, and two consolations in the future redemption...

The Shabbat after the Ninth of Av is called Shabbat Nachamu ("Shabbat of Consolation") after the opening words of the day's reading from the prophets ("haftara"). This is the first of the series of readings known as "The Seven of Consolation" read in the ...

When you’re feeling sad, do you go to your father or to your mother? Is it transcendence that you seek, or the solacing embrace that assures us that nothing is meaningless, that everything we are and feel can be borne, inhabited and redeemed?

The way our calendar is set up, Parshat Vaetchanan is always on Shabbat Nachamu, when we read the first haftarah of consoling.

My wife, Dina, once asked: “When every month you were losing more and more abilities to ALS, you just said, ‘Let’s figure out how to deal with it.’ How come it didn’t seem to faze you?”

The Shabbat following Tisha B’Av is known as “Shabbat Nachamu.” The name is taken from the opening word of the week’s haftarah.

This week’s haftorahIsaiah 40:1-26. is the first of seven consoling the Jewish people. After the Three Weeks of darkness and destruction, G‑d consoles us through the words of His prophet Isaiah. Each week, the consoling grows more and more powerful.Avudra...

The Haftorah of the weekly reading of Vaes’chanan begins with the words, “Comfort, comfort My people, says your G‑d.”Yeshayahu 40:1. The MidrashYalkut Shimoni, Yeshayahu, Remez 445. explains that the word “comfort” appears twice because of the twofold nat...

The cycle of moving from darkness to light is expressed on this Shabbat, the Shabbat after the ninth of Av, the fast which commemorates the destruction of both the first and second Temples in Jerusalem.

Some weeks, the Shabbat is given an additional, unique name, often related to a special haftarah or Torah reading added to that day’s service.