In the Jewish calendar, we’re in a period called the Seven Weeks of Comfort. It begins with grieving over how far we’ve drifted from the Divine (or our own divine natures). Over the seven weeks, we go through a process of self-examination and soul-healing, a journey that leads to Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish new year—a time of reconnecting. 

Both the English comfort and its Hebrew equivalent, nachamu, have intriguing etymologies. Comfort comes from the Old French confort, “feeling relief in affliction or sorrow” but it’s more than that. Fort is French for strong. And of course we see the English “fort”—a stronghold, a place of protection. So comfort is more than consoling or soothing; it has to do with giving strength.

Nachamu takes us in very different directions. It’s related to the word for “regret,” though the Hebrew concept isn’t quite the same as in English. Rather, it involves “having a different thought”—which might mean seeing an alternative to something you’ve already done and wishing you’d acted differently. Another possibility, though, is that it can let you “reframe the immediate pain of a loss in a larger, more encompassing picture or story.” (from “Nachamu” by Rabbi Julian Sinclair) Hebrew words tend to spin out into a web of meanings, and nachamu is also a cousin to the word for rest. Which I love, since I’m doing a Daring to Rest program that serendipitously takes place during the Seven Weeks.