The Haftarah that gives this Shabbat its name — “Shabbat Nachamu” — opens with:
“Nachamu, nachamu ami / Comfort, comfort My people — says your G-d. Speak to the heart of Yerushalayim and proclaim to her that her time [of exile] has been fulfilled, that her iniquity has been forgiven, for she has received from the hand of Hashem double for all her sins.”
The question is simple: what does “comfort, comfort” mean? How can Hashem comfort a person twice? Either you comfort him, or you don’t.
And the next question: what does it mean that “she received double”? When someone is hit, how can you hit him double? If he deserves 10 lashes, you give him 10. If he deserves 20, you give him 20. What does “double” mean? We need to understand this.
I think we can explain it like this:
Every sin a person does falls into two categories. There are sins between us and Hashem — not fulfilling mitzvot, not observing Hashems commands.
And then there are sins between people — not being honest, stealing, and so on. We tend to think that sins between people are not so severe. “It’s only my friend.”
But if we look in the Torah and in our books, we see something deeper. When a person is not nice to his friend, when a person sins against his friend, it’s not only a sin against his friend. It’s also a sin against Hashem.
We know the destruction of the Holy Temple wasn’t primarily because we didn’t observe mitzvot between man and Hashem. It was because of sinat chinam — baseless hatred. Harming people, being dishonest, not being truthful, damaging people.
Hashem says: this is not only a sin between you and your friend. This is a double sin. It’s between you and your friend, and it’s also between Me and you.
In other words: when you sin against Me, that’s one sin. You didn’t fulfill the mitzvah. But when you are dishonest to your friend, that’s a double sin — between him and you, and between Me and you.
That’s why when the destruction came, we were hit “double”: we lost the Holy Temple, and we lost unity among us.
Our job now is to bring unity, to bring oneness. And when we bring unity, Hashem will come to us, and we will get “double comfort.” Comfort that we are back with Hashem, and comfort that we are back with our friends.
Unity will not only bring unity among us in this world. It will create unity between us and Hashem.
May we merit to see this unity, very soon.