Sermon outline
Parshat Va’etchanan – Shabbat Nachamu
Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe
7.28.07
Big Idea: The texts surrounding Shabbat nachamu teach us that erring is ok, that for every bit we rebuke ourselves, we should more than double it with comfort.
1. Wisdom of Jewish calendar
- We receive specific messages in specific seasons
- Clues of where we need to be, where to focus our attention
2. Crucial time in the year
- Before Tisha B’Av, 3 weeks of “rebuke” haftarot
- Prophet warns, turn away from evil deeds or God will punish
- Now we stand 7 weeks before Rosh Hashanah. 7 weeks of comforting.
3. Turning point is Lamentations
- Lamentations is Jeremiah’s account of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE
- Shabbat peace flipped on its head – Shabbat bride is publicly ravaged
- But there are two signs of future building:
a. Lamentations acrostic (1,2,4, regular, 3 triple, 5 26 verses)
- Pain is becoming constructed, routine established
- Like acrostic of vidui in YK (Ashamnu, Bagadnu, etc)
- Much of YK Liturgy acrostic
b. Final line, from liturgy: Hashiveinu Adonai Eleicha v’Nashuva, Kadiesh Yameinu K’kedem - Take us back, O LORD, to Yourself, And let us come back; Renew us as in days of old!
- Admission of guilt, moving towards conciliation
- Kedem – In Genesis – OK to have mistakes. Natural part of life.
4. This week’s Haftarah: Isaiah 40 – Nachamu, nachamu Ami
- This is beginning of 2nd writer Isaiah. In Babylon, foretelling Is’s restoration.
- Comfort, oh comfort My people, Says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, And declare to her That her term of service is over, That her iniquity is expiated; For she has received at the hand of the LORD Double for all her sins. – DOUBLE = 7 weeks (versus 3)
- It is time to stop beating yourself up for last year’s mistakes. Now repair.
- As Lamentations showed us, it is natural to err. We need not be ashamed.
- Talmud: YK atones between God and man. We need to atone for man and man.
5. Torah portion Va’etchanan,
- Gives Israel hope with 2 of the most important sections:
- 10 commandments and the shema
- Also consoles Israel: Deuteronomy 4:29-31 9 But if you search there for Adonai your God, you will find God, if only you seek God with all your heart and soul -- 30 when you are in distress because all these things have befallen you and, in the end, return to Adonai your God. 31 For Adonai your God is a compassionate God: God will not fail you nor will God let you perish; God will not forget the covenant which God made on oath with your ancestors.
6. Conclusion: This is the season of comforting one another
- Stop beating yourself up; its natural to err
- Double your rebuke with comfort and consolation.
- For 3 weeks we tear down, then for 7 we rebuild
- Next month is elul. Elul backwards = lulu “if I had only”
- Good luck on your 7 weeks of healing.
Rabbi Jaffe
- Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe
- SAN FRANCISCO, California, United States
- Jonathan (Yoni) Jaffe has served Congregation Emanu-El as a rabbi since 2006. In 2010, Rabbi Jaffe took on the oversight of the synagogue's educational programming. In recent years, Rabbi Jaffe has served on the boards of the Jewish Community Federation's Peoplehood Commission, the San Francisco Interfaith Coalition, and the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis. He is currently a member of the 2010-2013 cohort of the Hartman Institute's Rabbinic Leadership Initiative in Jerusalem. He is a regular faculty member at Camp Newman and a representative of HaMoetzah—newly ordained rabbis serving as consultants to Hebrew Union College. Before ordination from Hebrew Union College in 2007, Rabbi Jaffe served as the Education Director for URJ Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, redesigning the curriculum for the 1,500 camper program. He has also served as Education Director for Temple Beth Torah of Fremont and has taught at the San Francisco Bureau of Jewish Education and Congregation Sherith Israel and interned at Congregation Aitz Chaim of Great Falls, Montana, and Congregation Ner Tamid of Las Vegas.
