20 Jul PARSHA IN PRACTICE: SKILLS FOR BETTER LIVING SHABBOS NACHAMU – A COMFORTABLE SHABBOS

What exactly is so
comforting about
Shabbos Nachamu?
We have just completed
a painful three-week
journey, culminating
in Tisha B’Av, as we tried to internalize how
much we have lost with the destruction of
the Beis HaMikdash. We sat on the floor and
mourned the tragedies that have befallen
our people because of the churban. But has
anything actually changed since then? Despite
our meaningful tears and heartfelt prayers,
we remain in exile, still bereft of a Beis
HaMikdash. So why should we suddenly feel a
sense of consolation? And what does Shabbos
have to do with any of it?
Perhaps the answer lies in reconsidering what,
exactly, we were mourning.
Is our grief simply about losing a magnificent
building, radiant kohanim, inspiring avodah,
and sacred vessels? We certainly long to see
all of those restored. But those are not the true
focus of our tears.
At its core, we are mourning the loss of our
relationship with Hashem.
The Beis HaMikdash was not merely a place;
it was an experience. It was where Hashem’s

Presence could be felt with unparalleled
clarity. Its open miracles and palpable holiness
allowed us to experience a closeness with the
Divine unlike anything else in this world. On
Tisha B’Av, that reality comes crashing down
upon us. We realize how distant we feel, how
much harder it is to sense Hashem’s Presence
in our lives, and we cry over what has been lost.
Then, almost immediately, Shabbos arrives.
It is as though Hashem responds to our
mourning with a gentle reminder: “You have
lost much – but not everything.”
While we strive to connect with Hashem every
day through tefillah and mitzvos, there is one
day each week when that relationship becomes
uniquely tangible. Shabbos offers us an
opportunity to experience genuine closeness
with Hashem even in the darkness of galus.
In fact, Rav Shimshon Pincus zt”l (Shabbos
Malk’sa, p. 111) writes that the connection we
experience on Shabbos is akin to standing in
the Beis HaMikdash itself.
Perhaps this is why the Torah forbids
constructing the Beis HaMikdash on Shabbos
(Yevamos 6a). Nor is it coincidental that the
thirty-nine melachos prohibited on Shabbos
are precisely the labors used to build a dwelling
place for Hashem (Shabbos 49b). Throughout
the week, mankind builds a sanctuary for the

Shechinah. On Shabbos, we stop building
because Hashem has already come to dwell
among us. We do not create a space for Him
that day; we simply enter the one He has
already created.
This is the comfort of Shabbos Nachamu.
Nechamah does not erase the pain of the
churban, nor does it ask us to pretend that
exile is over. Rather, it reminds us that exile
has never meant abandonment. The Beis
HaMikdash may be gone, but our relationship
with Hashem endures. Every Shabbos is a

weekly rendezvous with the Shechinah, an
opportunity to cherish the eternal covenant
that remains “between Me and the Children
of Israel… an everlasting sign” (Shemos 31:17).
And perhaps that is why Chazal teach that
careful Shabbos observance hastens the
redemption (Shabbos 118b). If we learn to
treasure the weekly closeness that Hashem
continues to offer us, perhaps we will become
worthy of the day when that closeness is no
longer confined to one day a week, but fills our
lives once again with the rebuilding of the Beis
HaMikdash.