The haftorah read on Shabbat Nachamu expresses the message of consolation by the Prophet Isaiah to a bereaved nation soon to endure a prolonged exile over two-and-a-half millennia. In the Old City of Jerusalem in 1920, a reading of that haftorah resounded throughout the Holy City and infused the people of Jerusalem with a renewed sense of hope.
In 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration, which supported Jewish aspirations for a Jewish national home in the Land of Israel. Soon after, opposition mounted from members of Britain’s government and military establishment. But the British premier, Lloyd George, was a staunch Zionist and stood by the Declaration. The prime minister appointed a Jew and professed Zionist, Sir Herbert Samuel, as the first High Commissioner of British-mandated Palestine.
On July 1, 1920, Samuel disembarked from a British battleship at the port of Haifa as the new commissioner or, as his biographer John Bowle put it, “the first Jewish ruler in Palestine since Hyrcanus the second” (whose reign ended 40 B.C.E). Samuel’s arrival seemed to be the answer to the Zionists’ prayers. A Zionist leader, Arthur Ruppin, commented in his diary on a ceremony held nine days later on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives in honor of Samuel’s appointment:
“Until now, pronouncements about a Jewish National Home had only been words on paper; but now they rose before us embodied in the person of a Jewish High Commissioner…Many of the Jews present had tears in their eyes.”
Just a few weeks later, on the morning of Shabbat Nachamu, Samuel set out on foot toward the famous Rabbi Yehudah HaChasid synagogue in Jerusalem. Surrounded by an entourage of advisers and guards, he entered the Old City’s Jaffa Gate and headed toward the Jewish Quarter. As he walked, spectators gathered on the streets, which were adorned with flowers, to catch a glimpse of the man in whom they placed so much hope. As he passed by, the onlookers cheered and expressions of joy resonated. A sense of euphoria overcame the crowds.
Samuel entered the synagogue, which was filled to capacity. He had arrived prepared to chant the haftorah. Soon the gabbai summoned him as he call out “Ya’amod hanasi ha’elyon (may the high commissioner arise).”
As Samuel stood up, the entire congregation also rose to their feet out of respect. Samuel made his way to the front of the synagogue and began to chant the words of the haftorah, echoing the words of Isaiah which expressed the hopes and dreams of the nation. “Comfort, comfort, My people, says G-d. Speak to her heart of Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her time (of exile) has been fulfilled, that her iniquity has been conciliated, for she has received for the Hand of G-d double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2).
The entire congregation trembled upon hearing those words, which embodied their greatest hopes and dreams. It was a moment of intense emotion. An aide to Samuel described the moment as “a golden moment when the Jews of the synagogue felt as if their hour of redemption had arrived.”
Despite the exuberance of the moment, Samuel did not live up to the people’s expectations. As Arab riots against Jews broke out and pressure against implementing the Balfour Declaration intensified within British circles, Samuel yielded and made concessions to the Arabs and their British supporters. He imposed restrictions on Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel and appointed Haj Amin Al Husseini — a vehement anti-Zionist responsible for inciting the anti-Jewish riots and later an ardent supporter of Nazism — to the position of Mufti (religious interpreter) of Jerusalem.
A British policy of appeasement was set into motion, signaling that the restoration of the Land to the Jewish people would be a slow, arduous process filled with many obstacles.
The course of events, however, did not change the impression of that Shabbat Nachamu. It was a very special moment for those Jerusalemites who were present — a moment in which the age-old message of Jewish hope and redemption resonated with special vigor.
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