Following Isaiah's Path of Consolation towards Renewal and Hope

This Shabbat, in addition to reading Parashat Re'eh, we announce the new month of Elul that begins next week. Its coming signals that we are already in the lead-up to the High Holidays! However, we cannot get there -- to our season of new beginnings -- until we take time to recover and rebuild from the hard place where we've just been.

As we move through the summer-to-fall swing of the annual Jewish calendar, I would note that it took much less time for us to descend to the low-point of Tisha B'Av (three weeks) than it will for us to climb out of that emotional pit (seven weeks). This reflects a truth about our world: that destruction and devastation can happen quickly, whereas healing necessarily takes time. This is true whether we're talking about literal fires burning structures to the ground (as our neighbors in Spokane and Chelan can sadly attest this week), or about an act of gun violence that can take some lives and irreparably alter others in a matter of seconds (as in the recent shooting at Seattle Center), or about the damage that's been done to our American democracy over the past year and a half (checks and balances have eroded at an alarmingly fast pace). In all of these cases, processing the damage and beginning to rebuild or recover will take much, much more time than it took for the damage itself to happen.

In our annual calendar flow, we build ourselves back up in the weeks between Tisha B'Av and Rosh Hashanah, aided by special scaffolding. The scaffolding takes the form of seven "haftarot of consolation" -- that is, seven specific readings from Nevi'im (Prophets) purposefully selected to help move us from a mindset of disaster, grief and loss towards a readiness for renewal and new beginnings.
This Shabbat, Jewish communities around the world will read the third of the seven special haftarot that follow Tisha B'Av: Isaiah 54:11-55:5. This section of text is interestingly and fittingly also part of the haftarah for Shabbat Noach. In other words: not only does it help us bounce back from the devastation of marking the Temple's destruction at this time of year, but we also chant this same section (with some extra verses at the beginning) right after reading about the flood in Noah's time that nearly wiped out all life on earth. Fortunately, this is a powerful enough text to work in both places: one that contains comfort in the form of a bold promise of physical and spiritual transformation.

Here are the opening verses of this week's haftarah (Isaiah 54:11-13):

עֲנִיָּ֥ה סֹעֲרָ֖ה לֹ֣א נֻחָ֑מָה הִנֵּ֨ה אָנֹכִ֜י מַרְבִּ֤יץ בַּפּוּךְ֙ אֲבָנַ֔יִךְ וִֽיסַדְתִּ֖יךְ בַּסַּפִּירִֽים׃
וְשַׂמְתִּ֤י כַּֽדְכֹד֙ שִׁמְשֹׁתַ֔יִךְ וּשְׁעָרַ֖יִךְ לְאַבְנֵ֣י אֶקְדָּ֑ח וְכׇל־גְּבוּלֵ֖ךְ לְאַבְנֵי־חֵֽפֶץ׃
וְכׇל־בָּנַ֖יִךְ לִמּוּדֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה וְרַ֖ב שְׁל֥וֹם בָּנָֽיִךְ׃
"Unhappy, tempestuous one, uncomforted!
I will lay emeralds as your building stones
And make your foundations of sapphires.
I will make your battlements of rubies,
Your gates of precious stones,
The whole encircling wall of gems.
And all your children shall be disciples of the Lord,
And great shall be the happiness of your children."

There is so much to notice in just these first few lines, as Isaiah walks us through a multi-step process towards recovery and the re-establishment of hope.

First, Isaiah addresses us in our misery, calling us "oniyah" ("poor," "afflicted," "unhappy") and noting our inability to be comforted. On the word "so'arah" ("tempestuous"), Rashi comments that it means "one whose heart storms with many troubles." This stormy-hearted image is such a potent and accurate description of what it can feel like when we find ourselves in the wake of chaos and loss. Reading this, hopefully we feel seen in our distress.

Next, Isaiah helps us move away from our shaky, storm-tossed state by re-establishing a firm foundation. The image he paints with his words -- of gemstones of all colors constituting the building stones, foundations, battlements, gates and walls of our new structure -- sounds gorgeous. Perhaps it isn't actually practical to use precious gems as foundation stones, but his visual really works. The new foundations of Isaiah's imagination are not only solid, but also beautiful and vibrant -- at once practical, stable, and eye-catching (sort of like the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz!). Through Isaiah's words, he sends a message about the immeasurable value of restoring our lives from the bottom up, beginning the rebuilding process by focusing on firm foundations and bringing solid beauty to the entire structure of our reconstituted lives.

Finally, atop that solid foundation, Isaiah promises us a future that is better than the present. Of course, getting there will take time -- the future he envisions will be for our children's generation and not necessarily for ours -- but he offers reassurance that it is on the way, through his promise that "your children shall be disciples of the Lord, and great shall be the happiness of your children."

A famous Talmudic interpretation (found in Berakhot 64a) plays with Isaiah's language in verse 54:13. Some of you may recognize the following passage (sometimes referred to as "Amar Rabbi Elazar") from the traditional siddur, where it appears in the concluding prayers of the morning service. It reads:

"Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina: Torah scholars increase peace in the world, as it is said: “And all your children [banayich] shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children [banayich].” If all the children of Israel are taught of the Lord, there will be peace for all. The Sages interpreted this verse homiletically: Do not read 'your children' [banayich], but 'your builders' [bonayich]. Torah scholars are those who build peace for their generation. As it is stated: 'Those who love Your Torah have great peace; there is no stumbling block for them' (Psalms 119)."
In this ancient Talmudic pun (which, incidentally, seems to stem from a variant - an extra vav in the word - found in a Dead Sea Scrolls text!), the word "children" is interchanged with the word "builders." In playing with these similar Hebrew words, the Talmudic sages claim that our children will actually be the builders -- that is, our children will be the ones to carry out our visions and build the world of the future. Based on this teaching, investing in the world we want to see necessitates investing in the next generation. If we do so well, providing our children with the right Torah, then they will have the capacity to become peace-builders.

This outlook -- our orientation towards the future, and a belief that the work of repair has a long arc and therefore that tools must be transmitted from one generation to the next -- feels quintessentially Jewish. It's also a critical part of Isaiah's message of comfort, as it provides hope, not just in any future but in a better future.

This investment in the future shows up in Kavana's work of this season, not only in terms of the Jewish calendar's Tisha B'Av-to-Rosh Hashanah run, but also in a very practical sense in terms of our board and staff's summer work-flow. As many of our community's academic-year programs take a pause in the summer, this season is devoted in large part to planning for the future. In recent weeks, we've been mapping our next-steps for strategic plan implementation, planning our community's High Holiday gatherings, designing curriculum for each of our education programs, and hiring new staff members. In addition, one way we invest in the youth of our community and in the Jewish future is that Rabbi Jay, RLO and I each spent time at Jewish camps this summer, visiting our Kavana campers and counselors, learning the newest Jewish music (and often fun hand-motions to go with the songs), and serving as educators to the children of our community. In addition, it was a special pleasure at our most recent Shabbat in the Park event to welcome back so many young adults -- college students and 20-somethings -- who grew up in this community and came back to welcome Shabbat and be in community with us again; I really think the whole Kavana community can share in a collective sense of pride at having been part of the village that nurtured these incredible young people who are both our "children" and our future-builders!
So, as we head into this third Shabbat of consolation and towards the month of Elul, I hope that Isaiah's words can meet you wherever you are this week. May they serve as the scaffolding we each need to find our way along the right paths -- both in the short-term lead-up to the High Holidays, and the longer-term (multi-generational) journey -- towards consolation, renewal and hope.

Shabbat shalom!

Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum