Turning Mourning into Dancing

Last Yom Kippur, Rabbi Bodney-Halasz spoke about how holiness is found within brokenness.  Today is Tisha B’Av, the day on which Judaism attributes the worst tragedies in our history going back to the destruction of both Temples.  We transition from mourning on this day, to Shabbat Nachamu tomorrow evening, the first of the seven Shabbats between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashanah, a pattern that happens every year.  

While Tisha B’Av is a day of mourning, I’m struck by the notion of holiness in brokenness.  This isn’t just found in communal observances, but within the structure of the calendar.  The notion of going from Tisha B’Av imminently into the self-reflective month of Elul and the emphasis on repentance and repair of the entire High Holiday season feels quite overt.  A little more subtle are these special haftarah portions we read.  This week’s Haftarah reading begins, “Comfort, Comfort My people…” (Isaiah 40:1) and is connected to the hope of return from exile.

Before we delve into the work of repair and return of the High Holiday season itself, we begin with comfort.  Our tradition knows that we cannot go from the depths of pain to restoration and repair immediately.  These first weeks in the seven are just consolation, only the second half of this period overlaps with Elul’s self-reflection.  For these weeks, for Isaiah, we sit with the experience of exile, with a Temple in ruins, and a fractured world and provide compassion, empathy, and comfort to one another first.  Only then can the work of return to Zion and rebuilding begin.  For us, we feel that sense of a fractured world in different ways than Isaiah did, but this pattern can serve us as well – we first must truly feel the impact, be with each other in that moment, and then we can begin to move forward into the next chapter.