In Judaism, there is a recurring theme of comfort, or “nechama.”
We have the commandment of nichum aveilim, comforting mourners. We have the concept of nechamat Tzion, the comfort of Zion, and we have the famous haftara of Nachamu Nachamu Ami, which is so fundamental that we call that Shabbat, “Shabbat Nachamu.”
Interestingly, the root of the word nechama can also mean to rest, lanuach in Hebrew. And the similarity to the name Noach is also worth mentioning.
So what do all these things have in common?
Sometimes, in order to achieve comfort, you need to stop, look around, and just be. That is what we have Shabbat for and that is what we learned from G-d and how he rested on the seventh day.
Clearly, G-d doesn’t need rest, but the lesson is that comfort, real comfort, not momentary comfort, comes from stopping and sometimes hitting the reset button, which is exactly what Noach did. He hit the global reset button, because in that case, it wasn’t one person who needed nechama, it was the entire world.
Mourners sit as their friends gather around them. They are forbidden from doing many Torah commandments because now is not the time to do, it’s the time to rest and that is how they achieve nechama.
We refer to Shabbat as Shabbat menucha. Shabbat is intended to recharge our batteries, to find inner peace by ceasing to create, and truly resting our soul. That is how the Shabbat is turned into Shabbat menucha and that is how we achieve true nechama.
