Nachamu, Nachamu: A Time for Comfort and Healing
Hostages, war, mass shootings, political turmoil, and worldwide antisemitism. It’s been a difficult year: 50 hostages still captive in Gaza including 28 confirmed dead, chilling Hamas hostage videos, a seemingly interminable war in Gaza, hundreds of Israeli casualties, over 260 mass shootings in the US since the beginning of 2025 including the recent deadly shooting in Manhattan, and democracy under attack. As public opinion has turned against Israel, there’s been an unprecedented global surge in antisemitism from college campuses to the public square. Meanwhile, within the Jewish community, there remains ongoing debate about Israel, famine in Gaza, as well as US immigration policies and the status of American democracy. It seems that no sooner are we done with one crisis that another one emerges.
Indeed, if ever we needed hope and comfort to help cope with these ongoing challenges and crises, it’s right now. Thus it seems fitting that this year Tu b’Av (15th of the Jewish month of Av) — also known as the Jewish Valentine’s Day — coincides with Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of Comfort which we mark this week; it follows the three-week mourning period in the Jewish calendar that culminates with Tisha b’Av. The name Shabbat Nachamu derives from the opening words of the Book of Isaiah 40: 1 – 26: “Nachamu, Nachamu Ami,” Comfort, Comfort, My People,” in the Haftarah portion we read this Shabbat.
Tu B’Av dates back to ancient Israel when the daughters of Jerusalem danced in the vineyards looking for a mate according to Mishnah Taanit 4:8. These days, Tu B’Av has become a day for Jewish marriage proposals, summer weddings, and singles events.
In addition to being a festival of love, Tu b’Av is also considered a day of comfort, healing, and redemption. Jewish tradition teaches that after the Second Temple was destroyed, Tu b’Av was the day when despair was transformed into hope, the punishment of the generation of the desert was lifted, the many years of wandering ceased, the day when the tribes of Israel were allowed to intermarry with the other tribes, and the day when the tribe of Benjamin was no longer excluded from the congregation of Israel (Taanit 30b).
Importantly, hope was now finally restored. The Israelites could at last realistically hope to enter Eretz Yisrael, rather than anticipate their own deaths and dig their own graves as they had for the previous 40 years according to Midrash Eicha Rabba.
So too, this year, let’s mark Shabbat Nachamu as a day when as a Jewish community, we can truly look to the future, as a day when we can overcome the despair of the past year, hope for a better future for Israel, America, and the world — and truly find the comfort and healing that we so badly crave these days.
