Yeshayahu 40:1-26

This haftorah is the first of Yeshayahu’s Seven Haftoros of Consolation that are read between Tishah B’Av and Rosh HaShanah. The purpose of these passages is to give hope to the Jewish People throughout the generations, to reassure them that one day, Yerushalayim will be rebuilt, and the Jewish People will live there in safety and security. Their unique relationship with God will grow and deepen until the entire world will acknowledge it, and create a world of justice and righteousness. The sum of all that, and more, is called “Redemption.”

Give comfort, give comfort to My People, says your God
Speak to the heart of Yerushalayim, and call out to her,
for her time has been served,
for her crime has been wiped away,
for she received from the hand of Hashem double for all her sins.

The First Step

On the Shabbos after Tishah B’Av we read the first of the Seven Haftoros of Consolation, known as the Sheva D’Nechemta. This haftorah begins with God commanding the prophets to give hope and comfort to the Jewish People, “Nachamu, nachamu ami.” As a result, this Shabbos is known as “Shabbos Nachamu.”

But how should the prophet go about consoling the Jewish People for the seemingly unending series of tragedies that is Jewish history? What can he say that will give us comfort rather than causing additional pain? If he describes the glorious future that awaits us, will that help? Or would it be so far-fetched, so distant from our experience of anguish and hopelessness, that we would dismiss it as unrealistic?

The prophet speaks to all the generations of the Jewish People who dreamed of returning to Eretz Yisrael and were barred from doing so by those who ruled it. The Babylonians, the Persians, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Caliphates, the Ottomans, the British — each of these was an empire of epic proportions. The tiny and powerless Jewish Nation had no practical way of carving out a home in Eretz Yisrael, never mind the preposterous idea of displacing these empires to be sovereign in our own Land.

מִי מָדַד בְּשָׁעֳלוֹ מַיִם וְשָׁמַיִם בַּזֶּרֶת תִּכֵּן וְכָל בַּשָּׁלִשׁ עֲפַר הָאָרֶץ וְשָׁקַל בַּפֶּלֶס הָרִים וּגְבָעוֹת בְּמֹאזְנָיִם… הֵן גּוֹיִם כְּמַר מִדְּלִי וּכְשַׁחַק מֹאזְנַיִם נֶחְשָׁבוּ הֵן אִיִּים כַּדַּק יִטּוֹל —

Who measured the sea with His fistfuls, and drafted the sky with a ruler? Who placed in a measure all the dust of the earth, weighed mountains on a scale and hills on a balance? . . . Truly, the nations are a drop in a bucket, reckoned like dust on a balance, truly, the continents are like a dust mote. (Yeshayahu 40:12, 15)

The haftorah reminds us that God created the universe and all that is in it. When measured on the scale of the universe, nations and empires are infinitesimal. What power do they have relative to the Creator?

Likewise, in Parashas Va’eschanan, which is always read on Shabbos Nachamu, we read how Moshe Rabbeinu reminds the Jewish People of their personal experience of God’s power over history:

אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה לָכֶם ה’ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם בְּמִצְרַיִם לְעֵינֶיךָ: אַתָּה הָרְאֵתָ לָדַעַת כִּי ה’ הוּא הָאֱ-לֹהִים אֵין עוֹד מִלְבַדּו —

Has any god attempted to come and take for himself a nation from another nation, with miracles, signs, and wonders, with war and a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great awe, like everything that He did for you, Hashem, your God, in Egypt, before your eyes? You were shown this so you would know that it is Hashem Who is God; there is nothing besides Him. (Devarim 4:34–35)

Having experienced the Exodus, the Jewish People know for a fact that God can depose any tyrant and bring ruin to the most invincible of empires. No self-style “superpower” can stand in the way of God’s plans for our destiny.

The haftorah points out that the Jewish People do not actually need any proof of this fact, as it is something that they already know:

הֲלוֹא תֵדְעוּ הֲלוֹא תִשְׁמָעוּ הֲלוֹא הֻגַּד מֵרֹאשׁ לָכֶם הֲלוֹא הֲבִינֹתֶם מוֹסְדוֹת הָאָרֶץ… וְאֶל מִי תְדַמְּיוּנִי וְאֶשְׁוֶה יֹאמַר קָדוֹשׁ —

Do you not know, have you not heard? Has it not been foretold to you? Do you not understand the basic principles of the world? . . . To whom can you liken Me, and find Me equal? says the Holy One. (Yeshayahu 40:21, 25)

According to the haftorah, the Jewish People are expected to know that God is not only the Creator of the world, but also the only power in it. We have been shown that He controls not only the forces of nature, but also the forces of history. When He wants the Jewish People to come back to Eretz Yisrael, nothing will stand in His way.

Still, in the midst of pain and tragedy, it is hard to remember that this is so, and we need the prophet to remind us.

By renewing our buried memory of God’s intervention in our history, the haftorah begins the process of renewing our faith in our future. This is the first step in the seven-step process of comforting the Jewish People and giving us a vision of Redemption as a feasible, attainable goal.

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