Everything is Double
נַחֲמוּ נַחֲמוּ עַמִּי יֹאמַר אֱלֹקֵיכֶם. (הפטרה)
“Be consoled, be consoled, My people,” says Your G-d. (Devarim 3:23)
They sinned doubly, as it says חָטָא חָטְאָה יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, “Yerushalayim sinned a sin.”
And they were punished doubly, as it says, כִּי מִיַּד ה' כִּפְלַיִם בְּכָל חַטֹּאתֶיהָ – “She received from Hashem’s hand doubly for all her sins.”
And the consolation is double, as it says, נַחֲמוּ נַחֲמוּ עַמִּי יֹאמַר אֱלֹקֵיכֶם – “‘Be consoled, be consoled, My people,’ says Your G-d.” (Eichah Rabbah 1:57)
Why is everything double?
It may be compared to two people who are taking leave of one another. One is traveling east, and the other, west. Whatever distance one of them goes, he is now double that distance from his friend.
This is why the sin was double. Hashem says, “If you leave Me a day, I will leave you two days.”
This means that for every day a person distances himself from the Torah, the Torah also distances itself from him a day’s travel. So he is now two days’ distance from the Torah.
This is an important principle in how Hashem relates to human beings. When a person commits a sin, the resulting destruction is not just the deed he did. It is much more than that. He also distances himself from Hakadosh Baruch Hu when he commits a sin. This distance deprives him of siyata d’Shmaya. And when a person doesn’t have siyata d’Shmaya, he experiences a lot of troubles.
It is obvious that the destruction a person causes himself by being distant from Hashem is no less than the destruction of the sin itself. So the damage is double.
It’s the same with receiving double punishment. When a person receives a punishment, he naturally suffers doubly from it. For instance, let’s say a person is sick in bed. Besides the suffering of being sick, he also doesn’t go to work, and he loses income. He might lose a large sum due to sickness or through being tied up by some other unpleasant circumstance. It’s all because the sickness was an expression of Hashem hiding His face from him, and when that happens, it’s double trouble.
And so it is with the double consolation. When a person does teshuvah with all his heart, and Hashem turns to him lovingly and affectionately, then besides the consolation he receives for the troubles he went through, he also gains siyata d’Shmaya in various areas. Just as sin distances a person from Hashem, so teshuvah draws him close.
And when he is close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he enjoys a lot of siyata d’Shmaya.
The Rambam writes:
Teshuvah is such a great and virtuous thing! Yesterday, this person was separated from Hashem the G-d of Yisrael. He cried out and was not answered. He did mitzvos and they were shredded in front of him.
Today, he is attached to the Shechinah. He cries out and is answered immediately. He does mitzvos and they are accepted joyfully and graciously. And not only that, but Heaven longs for his mitzvos, as it says, “The offering of Yehudah and Yerushalayim will be sweet to Hashem like in old times and in former years.”
So when a person wants to change his ways and do teshuvah and attach himself to Torah, and then he sizes himself up and realizes that his goal is beyond his abilities, it is not truly so. Because as soon as he starts to draw closer to Hashem, he gets siyata d’Shmaya. He has double strength. And the closer he draws himself, the more he gets. He will just go up and up.
