Moshe addressed the Jewish people before his death and talked to them about his expectations. He had led the Jewish people out of Egypt and given them the Torah, but he worried that they would rebel after his death. He wasn’t just worried about a kvetching rebellion. Moshe predicted that the Jewish people will turn their backs on G-d and worship idols. Can you imagine? After everything Moshe put into the Jewish people and after all the growth that they had seen, he was still worried that they would rebel, and in the worst possible way.

At the same time, this Shabbos is Shabbos Nachamu – the Shabbos of comfort. It marks the first week of our recovery after three weeks of reliving the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and Yerushalyim and all of the troubles that we experience and have experienced personally and as a nation. This Shabbos is when we get up off the floor and begin to accept comfort from Hashem.

The Gemara in Shabbos tells us that Hashem went to Avraham and Yitzchak and told the that the Jews deserved destruction. They agreed in order to sanctify hashem’s name. Only Yitzchak stuck up for the Jewish people. He said “they are not just my children; they are your children too”.

We usually look at Yitzchak as the disciplinarian of the forefathers. We discuss the fear of Yitzchak. The fear that Yaacov had of Yitzchok. The insistence of Yitzchok to do exactly what was proper no matter how difficult. Why would Yitzchak be the one to provoke mercy on us?

The answer is that the discipline that leads to punishment must also lead to reward. If we were punished then we must be comforted because we deserve that as well. In fact we deserve double comfort because our judgment was so strict.

This is the Nechama of Nachamu. We have a strict G-d, but He is strict in our favor as well. 

Rav Moshe Feinstein was a rav in the Soviet Union in a town called Luban. He did not give a sermon every week, but he would speak six times a year on Shabbos Hagadol, Shabbos Shuva, Shavuos, Succos, the seventh of Adar, and Shabbos Nachamu.

Rav Moshe kept very clear notes of these long and involved talks. He considered them to be the most valuable of his writings.

On Shabbos Nachamu, 1922, Rav Moshe tried to comfort his people. Instead of talking about the victims of recent pogroms, he talked about the attackers. They had been savage beasts with no trace of goodness. They did not seem to have any humanity in them at all. How was it possible for a person to become so bad?

Rav Moshe went on to point out the great scholars and sages throughout our history. These people were perfect, exemplary role models of what a person can become.

The only conclusion that we can draw is that the human being is a very complex blend of the holy and the mundane. People can be animals and they can act with no mercy. But those same people have the ability to be the greatest, most sensitive and caring saints. We can do it. We have it in us.

Rav Moshe comforted his people by restoring their faith in their own humanity. As bad as people are, they have a potential for goodness as well. That never goes away.

Rabi Akiva said “Chaviv Adam Shenivra B’tzelem – Man is beloved because he was created in the image of G-d”. No matter how terribly people act or how badly we rebel, we are still created in the image of Hashem.

Rav Moshe told his people that the whole world, with all of its suffering and insanity is worthwhile, if just one human being recognizes his or potential for holiness.

Hashem never gives up on us, and our potential for holiness never goes away. Hashem’s strictness and our human nature can work in our favor too. That is the greatest Nechama.

II

I have been privileged to spend time on the Norfolk Naval base. It’s kind of a strange experience. On the one hand, you are surrounded by power and death and destruction; on the other it’s pretty calm. There is no shooting, just a lot of people taking leisurely walks, taking out the garbage, and playing football.

I think I understood this when we looked out onto the water. It was very peaceful with sailboats in the distance and a very slight breeze, but then my friend started telling me about how President Lincoln stood right across the water plotting his attack on Norfolk and how ships had traveled through these exact waters for every battle from the Revolution to the war against ISIS. And how the Monitor and Merrimac almost sunk each other in those exact waters.

Suddenly it wasn’t such a peaceful place any more.

I think that is what Shabbos Nachamu is all about. The prophet says, I want you to be comforted because you have taken a huge hit.  It’s funny how we need to be reminded to be comforted. Yeshaya wasn’t just telling us that the suffering was over, he was reminding us that we have suffered. It is so easy to just take the quiet for granted and totally forget all of the turmoil that took place.

The Gemara tells us that if someone without any relatives passes away, we need to gather ten people to come together to be comforted. Kind of strange. Usually we understand that we comfort the mourner because he is upset. Here we are told to be upset so that we can be comforted. This is our way of honoring the deceased, by showing that we need to be comforted.

So let’s be comforted this Shabbos by not forgetting that we’ve suffered over the years. And let’s comfort other people all year by not taking for granted the serenity that they made appear to be experiencing.