PARASHAT V’ETCHANAN Shabbat Nachamu

Saturday 9^th August 2025      Shabbat Nachamu        15^th Av 5785

PARASHAT V’ETCHANAN

Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11; Isaiah 40:1-26; Luke 3:2-15

Shabbat Nachamu - שבת נחמו – The Sabbath of Comfort

Shabbat Nachamu, which translates to "Sabbath of Comfort," is the Shabbat immediately following Tisha B'Av, a day of mourning for the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem. It is named after the first words of the Haftarah (prophetic reading), "Nachamu, nachamu ami," meaning "Comfort, comfort my people," from the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 40). This Shabbat marks the beginning of seven weeks of consolation leading up to Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year). 

Once it happened that the scribes asked our Master, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” He replied, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:29–30).

The commandment “to love God” applies universally to Jews and God-fearing Gentile believers in every time and place. Yeshua teaches that this is the greatest of all the commandments because it provides the correct motivation for keeping all other commandments incumbent upon us. Our love for God should provide the impetus behind everything we do. It should burn like unquenchable passion, such as a young man or woman feels for his or her betrothed.

Love is not too much for God to ask of us, for “He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). His love was made manifest in that “He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9–10).

Paul Philip Levertoff states, “Fear and love are wings by which the soul is carried to heaven.” A bird needs two wings to fly. Fear of the LORD and love for the LORD are like the wings of the soul. The bird with a broken wing cannot fly. Neither can the soul ascend to cleave to God unless it possesses both the fear of God and the love of God. Nevertheless, love for God is higher than fear.

We might obey God because we fear His wrath and punishment. We might obey Him because we fear the consequences that He will visit upon us if we do not. We might obey Him because we fear damnation. This is a very pragmatic kind of relationship with God. It is the same reason we drive the speed limit—we fear the consequences of being caught breaking the rules. Yet it is also a self-interested relationship that emphasizes protecting the self.

Love, on the other hand, presents a more selfless path of service. The Apostle John explains that our faith in Messiah purifies our service of God to one of pure love:

By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. (1 John 4:17–18)

How do we express our love for God? The apostle John teaches us that we express love for God by keeping His commandments and by loving others (which is the second greatest commandment). He says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).