Prayer Lesson 20 – Nachem (“Comfort”)

A prayer of consolation for Tisha B’Av

This week, we will be commemorating the saddest day of the year, the ninth of Av (Tisha B’Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Besides reading the Book of Lamentations (Eichah), and some extraordinary poems of mourning (kinot), we add a special paragraph, Nachem, to the afternoon amidah.

Why in the afternoon? Why not in the morning? Because according to tradition, the Temple was torched in the evening, and burned through the night. By the afternoon, the fires had died down. This is related to a verse in chapter 4 of Lamentations: “The Lord has fulfilled His fury. When He kindled the fire in Zion which devoured her foundations, His fierce anger was spent.”

So even though it is still Tisha B’Av, the process of consolation has already begun. The prayer is appropriately inserted into the prayer for the rebuilding of Jerusalem in the Amidah, and begins with the words “Comfort, Lord our G-d, the mourners of Zion and those who grieve for Jerusalem…”.

At this point, the traditional prayerbook and the Conservative prayerbook diverge. The traditional prayerbook continues with the words, “the city that is in mourning, ruined, scorned, and desolate; Mournful without her children, ruined without her dwellings, scorned without her glory, and desolate without her inhabitants.”

In contrast, the Conservative text reads, “the city which once was so desolate in mourning, like a woman bereft of her children….Lord Who causes Zion to rejoice at her children’s return, may all who love Jerusalem exult in her, may all who mourn Jerusalem of old rejoice with her now…Grant peace to the city which You have redeemed, and protect her…”.

The difference between the two versions is obvious. The traditional version does not take into account any of the changes of the last century. It still envisions a Jerusalem that is an unceasing ruin, where Jews are oppressed and desperate for redemption. One would never know from the traditional prayer that “desolate Jerusalem” is now home to 800,000 people, and Jerusalem “scorned without her glory “ is the home to 70 institutions teaching art, 60 museums, 1500 parks and gardens, 30 annual festivals, and over 4 million tourists a year from all over the world.

The Conservative version recognizes both the need to mourn the devastating consequences of exile, and the need to recognize the reality of G-d’s ongoing redemption, which we have been privileged to witness with our own eyes.