Va’eschanan, Shabbos Nachamu
The Gemara brings: Rabban Gamliel, Rabi Eliezer ben Azariah, Rabi Yehoshua and Rabi Akiva were going up to Yerushalayim. When they reached the mountain called Tzufim, or were a certain distance from Yerushalayim from which they could see Yerushalayim, they ripped their clothes. When they reached Har HaBayis they saw a fox going out of the kodesh hakodoshim. Rabban Gamliel, Rabi Eliezer ben Azariah, and Rabi Yehoshua started crying, whereas Rabi Akiva started laughing. They asked Rabi Akiva, “Why are you laughing?” He asked them, “Why are you crying?” They answered, “Because the kodesh hakodoshim, the place about which it says, “and a stranger who shall come close shall die” now has foxes going through it and we shouldn’t cry?!” Rabi Akiva said to them, “I laughed because this that the fox went through the kodesh hakodoshim is a sign that there will be redemption in the future. In a passuk in Navi Micha, Uriah said, “Tzion will be a field plowed through.” Another passuk in Navi Zechariah says, “Old men and old women will sit in the streets of Yerushalayim.” In Sefer Yeshaya the two nevi’im Uriah and Zecharia are put together in the same passuk. The Gemara explains that although Uriah was by the 1st Beis HaMikdash and Zechariah was by the 2nd, they were put together in order to compare one to the next. Just as the passuk with Uriah came true when the fox was seen going through the kodesh hakodoshim, so too will there be a redemption in the future of old men and women sitting in the streets of Yerushalayim.” They answered, “Rabi Akiva, you comforted us, Rabi Akiva you comforted us.”
The mefarshim ask: Why is there a double lashon here? Also, in the haftarah it says, “nachamu nachamu.” Here too, why is there a double lashon? The Radak explains that this is to emphasize and strengthen that indeed there will be a nechama and a geulah. The Malbim explains that there are two possibilities of when the geulah can come. One is early, because of our merits or if we accepted punishments. The 2nd is even if we are not zoche it will come in the set time. This is hinted to in the words בעתה אחישנה which the Gemara explains means: if we are zoche, then early, if not then בעתה in the set time. Therefore nachamu is doubled, hinting to these two possibilities of geulah.
May Hashem help us recognize and feel the missing presence of Hashem’s shechina and may He bring the geulah shleima speedily and in our days!
