Comfort and Rest

Friday August 8, 2025/ 14 Av 5785/Parshat Va'Etchanan/Shabbat Nachamu/Tu B'Av

Hevre/Friends,

Nederland, Colorado, is a gateway town to outdoor adventure in Rocky Mountain National Park, Roosevelt National Forest and more spectacular wilderness terrain. We’ve been hanging out here and hiking this week before making our way to Aspen for a family wedding. This is black bear and moose territory so every trailhead has signs telling you what to do in the event you encounter one. What always strikes me is how the warnings state clearly that the concern is not only for your safety, but for the animals’ safety.

I’m especially sensitive this week to the notion of animals and people living in deep, symbiotic relationships as we are just days into our family’s grief over the death of our beloved dog, Yoda, last Sunday. Yoda was scrappy and rambunctious, cuddly and coy. She made us laugh, came everywhere with us, and was the soul of our family for 15 years. We ache to think of life without her even as we’re grateful for our time together. As I held her in my arms watching her take her last breaths, I was overwhelmed by the depth of connection two different creatures can share, and by the depth of pain her passing was creating for us and our kids.

Five hard days later, yesterday morning I found myself reading a thoughtful commentary by Rabbi Berel Wein about the Jewish concept of nechamah, or comfort. This Shabbat is the first of seven weeks of comfort, the “Shiva D’Nechemta”, that follow Tisha B’Av’s mourning the destruction of the Temples. Each Shabbat a special haftarah of hope and promise is chanted. Rabbi Wein noted that in our tradition, finding comfort from pain doesn’t mean erasing our feelings of loss or sorrow. It means, instead, coming to terms with our suffering, learning what we can from it, and committing to do the hard work of growing from it. And then, finding somewhere to lay our pain to rest so that it doesn’t hinder our ability to move forward even as we carry it with us throughout our days ahead. As Rabbi Wein pointed out, embedded in the word for comfort, נחמה/nechamah, are the letters נ/nun and ח/chet which are the root of the Hebrew word for “rest”. Finding comfort at its most basic level means finding a way to hold our heartache and then to set it down. 

For almost two years now since October 7 we’ve been praying for a space to set our suffering down. But instead we awake each morning to news of corrupt political leaders driving Israel’s military strategy in Gaza which is becoming harder and harder to abide; to the world’s growing outrage at the devastation caused by this seemingly endless war, to hostages on the brink of death forced to dig their own graves, to a silent world, to longtime allies joining the efforts to isolate Israel, to more shocking displays of antisemitism not just from fringe actors but established institutions and businesses. 

Comfort?? Set our anguish down?? Our burdens only keep getting more frightening and heavier to carry. 

And then along comes this Shabbat. A Shabbat of consolation. And, tomorrow being the 15th of Av - the date of an ancient celebration of romance which has been revived in modern Israel - a Shabbat of love. A Shabbat to remind us of our capacity to open our hearts to others, to love and to be loved. To hold and to be held. To comfort and to be comforted. 

As our day of rest approaches, may we each find a respite from the pain, shame, and worry we carry - as individuals, as human beings, as Jews. But may we carry the lessons they impart forward into the week ahead, and those thereafter, continuing to build a world free of hurt and harm.

With continued prayers for our ability to bring home all the hostages, protect the soldiers, heal the injured, comfort the bereaved, and build a lasting peace in Israel and around the world, and with blessings for a Shabbat Shalom,

Dini