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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg

Good Morning,

When I was almost thirteen, one September too many years ago, I was tested by my rabbi before my Bar Mitzvah: ‘What’s this period of the year called?’ he asked. Luckily, I knew: the seven weeks of consolation.

Each Sabbath as we approach the Jewish New Year, we read verses of hope and healing. The seven weeks begin with a passage from Isaiah, famous from Handel’s Messiah, ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, says your God.’

As so often, the rabbis read those words both forwards and backwards. God may bring us comfort, but what comfort are we bringing God? We need to turn the sentence around and say: ye – that is you and me – have to help that comfort happen.

The world needs not just words, but actions which bring consolation and make healing real.

I wept when England won the Women’s Euro, because it was an amazing achievement, because it was women who did it, but above all because it lifted everyone’s spirits and we desperately wanted just that.

But it’s not only what makes the big screen; it’s the millions of actions which, if recorded at all, appear on the small screens of local What’s App groups. It’s neighbourhoods supporting their local food banks. It’s NHS and care home staff who offer not just skill but compassionate understanding. It's people planting woodlands and trees in our cities. I’ll be out there too, when enough rain has finally come, to replant the saplings which didn’t survive the burning summer.

God, give us the determination to bring the world the healing and comfort it so desperately needs.

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