וקוי ה' יחליפו כח יעלו אבר כנשרים ירוצו ולא ייגעו ילכו ולא ייעפו ... (ישעיה מ-לא)
This is the Shabbos we’ve all been waiting for! Shabbos Nachamu, when Hashem so lovingly comforts His people after three long weeks of mourning. But the amount of comfort we feel truly depends on us! This month, the saddest month of the year is called “Menachem Av” which literally means “Comfort the Father” signifying quite clearly the avodah of this period. We, the beloved children of Hashem must comfort our Father, Who is in terrible pain over the Churban. WE must look for every opportunity to console Hashem and ease His pain. How do we do this? Firstly, we comfort others by FEELING their pain. But there is another great way to be menachem our Av, and that is by bringing Him nachas! Now think to yourself as a parent, what brings you nachas? The answer is clear: when your kids get along!
The Bais HaMikdash was destroyed because of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza. Isn’t this puzzling? We can understand that Bar Kamtza, who was thrown out of the party, had a hand in the churban, but what did Kamtza do? His good friend made a big party and he wasn’t even invited. One answer is that if Kamtza was such a close friend of the host, he should never have allowed his friend to have such an enemy! We should all stop at this time and think: Is there anyone I know that has an enemy? Do I, in fact, have an enemy? What can I do to make peace, since this is truly a nachas and comfort to Hashem.
On Shabbos Nachamu, Hashem comforts us. But let us remember that Hashem is our shadow - "ה' צלך" - and He treats us the way we treat Him. The more we pray, we daven, and we pour out our hearts and innermost desires and feelings, we develop a real, genuine, strong, unbreakable bond with our Father in Heaven. Let us maximize this nechama by truly and continuously striving to be “Menachem OUR Av”. May all the tefillos of Klal Yisroel merge together to realize the words of the Navi - "נחמו נחמו עמי" - and we shall be truly comforted with the rebuilding of the Bais HaMikdash, במהרה בימינו אמן.
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