Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We are now in the zone of nechama —the time of comfort . As we know, this week's Shabbat is called Shabbat Nachamu , based on the Haftarah , which opens with the words נחמו נחמו עמי / Be comforted, be comforted My nation, יאמר אלקיכם —so your God will say. The Pri Tzadik in this week's parashah is bothered: it shouldn't say יאמר /He will say—but rather אמר /God said. He explains that it's for future generations; whenever we read this Haftarah , God Himself is talking to us and giving us words of comfort. This is not just the first Haftarah , but for the next seven weeks. There are seven weeks of comfort. His words are, מתחדש הנחמה מפי השם ממש —the words of comfort literally come out of God's mouth and are renewed every year— ונכנס ללב —and enter the heart. That's how we get ready for the High Holiday season. It's worthwhile to refresh our memory—what does the word nechama , which we loosely translate as comfort , really mean? We go back to the first time the word nechama shows up in the Torah , where it says וינחם השם כי עשה את האדם בארץ . Simply speaking, Hashem comforted Himself that He made man on earth. ויתעצב אל לבו —and He was u pset. So now, if He's upset, why is He comforting Himself? Rashi says וינחם means נהפכה מחשבתו של מקום —God's thought changed. He changed from the trait of mercy to the trait of justice . Rashi continues and says: וכן כל לשון ניחום שבמקרא — wherever it says the word nichum in the Torah , it means to have a change of mind, as it says: ובן אדם ויתנחם/ Is God like a human being that changes His mind? על עבדיו יתנחם —on His servants He will change His mind. וינחם השם על הרעה —God changes His mind from the bad, and so on . כולם , says Rashi , all of them, לשון מחשבה אחרת —it means a different way of looking at things. So nachamu means not comfort , but: start looking at things differently. Have a different angle on things. Yes, we suffered. Yes, it's difficult. But there's a new perspective to be given. This reminds us of the famous story at the end of Masechet Makkot , where the group of Tannaim were going to Yerushalayim . They reached Mount Scopus, and they tore their clothing. When they reached the Temple Mount, they saw a fox running out from the Kodesh HaKodashim —the Holy of Holies. The rabbis started to cry, and Rabbi Akiva started to laugh. They said to him, "Why are you laughing?" He said, "Why are you crying?" And they replied, " This is a place where it says a non- kohen that enters should die, and now foxes are running there—and we shouldn't cry?" He said, " That's why I'm laughing. Because there are two pesukim . One says there will be negativity, and the good will only come when that negativity is fulfilled. And now that I see the negativity being fulfilled, I know that the positive prophecies will come true." And they said to him, Akiva nichamtanu, Akiva nichamtanu — Rabbi Akiva , you comforted us. Which means: Rabbi Akiva , you gave us a new angle, a new way of looking at things. And that's what our job is for these next weeks. We have three weeks of negative Haftarot , and seven weeks of positive Haftarot . That means Hashem wants us to focus on the flip side— not on the negative. In one of the upcoming Haftarot , Yeshayahu 49:14 , it says: ותאמר ציון עזבני השם — Tzion says: God has forsaken me. ואדני שכחני —and God forgot me. And God says: " You know what? You're doing the same thing Adam HaRishon did. I made a wife to help him, and he complained. Yaakov Avinu —I'm making his son into the king, the viceroy—and he's complaining. And Tzion , you're doing the same thing. I'm busy now getting rid of the other nations of the world. I already got rid of Bavel , I got rid of Madai , I got rid of Yavan —and now I want to get rid of the final wicked kingdom. And you're complaining and you're saying עזבני ?" So we have to look at things in a different light. And that's what we'll be doing, b'ezrat Hashem , this week until this Shabbat—which is Tu B'Av —and then b'ezrat Hashem , after that, we will start a new series to be announced next week.