‘And all his sons and daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted’. This description of Jacob’s grief when he is brought evidence of the death of Joseph, is on the face of it heart rending. The pathos of the old man who has lost his favourite son, the reminder of his beloved wife, cannot fail to move us. Yet the Rabbis throw a completely different light on this verse; transforming this inconsolable sorrow into a seed of hope. Jacob, they state, could not be consoled for Joseph because he was still alive. One of the mercies of G-d is that we slowly get over bereavement. The sharp pain of loss is replaced by a fading memory of the deceased, that enables us to carry on with our lives. Yet this is only true of the dead; not of the absent living. They are still existent and therefore can return to us. We cannot be consoled for them precisely because they, unlike the dead, are not irretrievably lost. Thus, Jacob could not be consoled for Joseph because, being still alive, he retained the potential to return to his father. This lesson we can see played out in the Jewish response to destruction and exile. One would of thought that, after many centuries, the Jews would stop mourning for the Temple and the loss of the Land. Yet this mourning was incorporated into both our yearly calendar and our life cycle. Because we never gave up hope of returning to our land and rebuilding the Temple, we could never stop grieving for them. Because the hope of restoration kept them ‘alive’ , we refused to be consoled. It is this attitude that led both to our survival and our eventual return to the Land. It is also this attitude that motivated the Maccabees. Despite overwhelming odds, they refused to concede that Judaism was dead. As long as they kept up the hope of its restoration, the Greeks could never succeed. Our Rabbis say that in the future, all the festivals will be abolished; except for Hanukah and Purim. It is maybe this lesson that is so important that it needs to be eternally taught. As long as we believe in Judaism; it can never be left for dead. As long as we refuse to be consoled for our lost values; they are not irretrievably lost. For as long as we refuse to extinguish the spark of hope in our hearts, no darkness will prevent it eventual kindling a great and renewed light.

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