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This Shabbat, the Shabbat after the ninth of Av, is called Shabbat
Na-cha-mu, the Shabbat of Comfort during which we read the first of seven
readings of comfort from the Book of Isaiah. These special prophetic readings
are meant to reiterate the promise that God has not forsaken His people. Here
is an interesting historical fact. In 1920, following the Balfour Declaration
and the start of British Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel was appointed as the
first British High Commissioner of Palestine. On Shabbat Nachamu of that year,
he arrived at the Churva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem and read this
special Torah portion. For those present, it truly felt like the start of the
redemption!
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