This Shabbat is called Shabbat Nachamu—the Sabbath of Consolation—after the haftarah’s opening demand: “Comfort, comfort—nachamu, nachamu– My people, says your God” (Isaiah 40:1). It follows directly after Tisha B’Av, the bleakest point in the Jewish calendar—a day defined by destruction, exile, and the repeated experience of abandonment.

The calendar moves us quickly—almost abruptly—from devastation to consolation. But the shift is not convincing. The Scroll of Lamentations hammers home a different reality: “there is no comforter.” The absence of comfort is not incidental; it is the defining condition. Against that backdrop, Isaiah’s doubled nachamu sounds less like reassurance and more like insistence—perhaps even overcompensation. Why the need to say it twice? Because once is not enough. Because the wound is not superficial. Because the suffering itself was doubled. And perhaps because words, by themselves, are not to be trusted.

Moses and the refusal of closure

Parshat Va’etchanan reinforces this refusal to resolve things neatly. Moses pleads, argues, begs to enter the land—and is refused. No compromise. No appeal. No reward for a lifetime of leadership. He is granted vision, but not fulfillment. Leadership, faith, and longing culminate in an incomplete ending. The Torah does not resolve this tension.

This is not a comforting story. It is a confrontation with limits, with unfinished business, with the reality that history does not tie itself up in moral bows. Moses........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)