The Haftora for the Shabbat after the Fast of the Ninth of Av begins ‘Be comforted, be comforted, My people, says Hashem’.
A discourse by the Previous Rebbe quotes a Midrash which asks why the term ‘be comforted’ is repeated. The Midrash states that in the prophecies and lamentations about the Destruction of the Temple there are several double expressions such as ‘my eyes my eyes pour [tears]’ and similar. Hence the Midrash states that, as expressed in these texts, the sins of the Jews were double, their punishment was double and therefore also their consolation (after their Repentance) was double.
The Previous Rebbe explains that the reason for all these ‘doubles’ is because there is a double aspect to the Mitzvot which Hashem commands us. Each Mitzvah has two aspects: it purifies the person who carries it out, and it also has a positive effect on the world. Hence if people do not keep the Mitzvot there is a double negative effect, which leads to a double punishment. Hence after Repentance, there is double consolation: ‘be comforted, be comforted’.
There is a further double aspect to the Mitzvot. The person observing the Mitzvot has a Divine Soul and an Animal Soul, which links with the physical body. When one keeps Mitzvot, the Animal Soul and the body achieve a level of Tikkun, ‘Repair’. In addition, the Divine Soul, which, according to the great kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria, does not need Tikkun in the same way, nonetheless achieves an Aliyah, an elevation. Through the process of being in this world in the person, helping him or her fulfil the Mitzvot, the Divine Soul is elevated to a far higher spiritual level than it had before it left the celestial realms and entered the body of the person.
Thus a doubly positive effect is achieved for the individual by keeping Mitzvot. In addition, the Mitzvot achieve a double effect on the world. The goal of Creation is to make a ‘dwelling for the Divine’ in our low physical world. In order to do this, two types of action are required: to clear away the negative aspects of the environment, and to fill it with positive spirituality. This is achieved by the two kinds of Mitzvah – ‘turn aside from evil’, those Mitzvot which prevent us from negative behaviour, and ‘do good’, the positive Mitzvot which fill the world with goodness.
The Rebbe points out that, in addition, when carrying out any Mitzvah there is a double action: both the Divine Soul and the Animal Soul are involved. Because the Divine Soul, by itself, cannot get the body to act, it needs the intermediary of the Animal Soul; and the Animal Soul needs the Divine Soul to turn it in the right direction.
All this underlines the double aspect of the negativity caused by not keeping the Mitzvot properly, within each individual and also in the world as a whole, and the effect of this negativity is Exile. Exile too can be seen as having a double effect, concealing two key aspects of the Divine: the immanent (the radiance filling the worlds, giving life to Nature) and the transcendent (the radiance beyond the worlds, beyond Nature).
When the transcendent aspect is hidden, people feel they cannot see any supernatural miracles. One might say, this is typical of the state of Exile. But a further concealment of the Divine is when one cannot see the immanent aspect either. That means Nature is construed as lacking any Divine input. This is a further ‘doubled’ aspect of Exile.
On account of this double aspect of sin and the punishment of Exile, the Repentance which follows, and G-d’s acceptance of the Repentance, also have a double quality. We see this from the fact that when Hashem gave the Ten Commandments, the first word was ‘Anochi’, I, said once. But a key verse about G-d accepting repentance is double: ‘Anochi, Anochi (I, I) – will wipe away your sins’.
This double aspect of Repentance means that the repentant person should be stricter than the letter of the law. In the Shema it says one should love G-d with all one’s heart and all one’s soul – this is the basic level of service of G-d, involving the lower aspects of the Soul: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah. But the repentant person reaches also the higher level of loving G-d ‘with all one’s might’, involving the higher aspects of the Soul – Chaya and Yechidah. This is why the Zohar says the repentant person serves G-d with ‘greater strength’.
Now the root of everything is in the Torah, and thus we see in the Torah there is also the theme of ‘double’, namely the two sets of Tablets of the Law. The first set was brought down from Sinai by Moses, but when he saw the orgy around the Golden Calf he broke them. Then, after the repentance of the Jewish people, he brought the Second Tablets, signifying the double power of Repentance.
Further, the power of Repentance is that it transforms sins into merits. [This too can be understood as a double action: Repentance not only cancels the sins, but makes them into something positive]
Thus the Sages tell us that through Repentance the Jewish people will be redeemed, and then the days of remembering the tragedy of the Destruction of the two Temples (also a ‘double’) will be transformed into festive days of joy, and then there will be the true comfort, the inner comfort, the comfort for all, with the coming of Moshiach.
