We are in the midst of the sheva‘ de-neḥamta, the seven Haftarot of consolation that are chanted between Tish‘ah Be-Av and Rosh Hashanah.
How can we be consoled this year, in the wake of the slaughter on October 7?
Ibn Ezra and modern scholars teach us that Isaiah 40–66 were written by a second author (“Deutero-Isaiah”), who lived in Babylonia after the destruction of the First Temple but was certain that the Lord would restore His people to its land.
After the destruction of the Second Temple, Rabbi Akiva and other sages went up to Jerusalem. “Just as they came to the Temple Mount they saw a fox emerging from the Holy of Holies. They fell a-weeping and R. Akiba seemed merry. Wherefore, said they to him, are you merry?” He replied to them with a midrash on a verse in Isaiah and concluded, “‘Now that Uriah’s prophecy [of destruction] has been fulfilled, it is quite certain that Zechariah’s prophecy [of restoration] also is to find its fulfillment.’ Said they to him: ‘Akiva, you have consoled us. Akiva, you have consoled us.’”
May it be God’s will that just as the Holy One redeemed us from the Babylonian exile and has brought us back from “the four corners of the earth” since 1948, so will He redeem us and console us once again, fulfilling the words of the verse from this week’s Haftarah, “For the Lord will comfort His people, will redeem Jerusalem.”
