Judaism is a religion of relationships: between human beings and each other and between human beings and God. This week marks the second week of the seven Haftarot of Consolation: seven special selections from Isaiah that are read each Shabbat between Tisha b’Av and Rosh Hashanah. If Tisha b’Av is the day of destruction and furthest alienation and Rosh Hashanah is the day of closest connection, then one of the purposes of these haftarot is to remind us that the opportunity for connection with our deepest, truest selves, with others, and with the sacred and the holy is always present.

This week’s Torah portion reinforces that theme; after repeating God’s promise to place the Israelites in the Land of Israel with all its bounty Moses gives this warning, “When you have eaten your fill, and have built fine houses to live in, and your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold have increased, and everything you own has prospered, beware lest your heart grow haughty… and you say to yourselves, ‘My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me.’ Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to get wealth, in fulfillment of the covenant that He made on oath with your fathers, as is still the case.” (Deuteronomy 8:12-18) We live in a society that values individuals and their achievements above all. Judaism has a very different message—that everything we have and everything we accomplish we do with the help of others, whether divine or human. It makes no difference, from our particular inborn talents to the support and aid provided by a strong and stable society and country. That is why Judaism values relationships so highly, for it is in relationship that we truly find ourselves and in isolation that we are truly lost.

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