S inned doubly punished doubly comforted doubly.
“ ‘Console console My people ’ says your G-d.” (Yeshayahu 40:1 —
the haftarah)
RThe Midrash (Eichah Rabbah 1:57) asks: Why is the wording repetitive? Because Bnei Yisrael sinned doubly therefore they were punished doubly and they’ll also be comforted doubly.
It’s comparable to two people who separated from each other; the more one traveled the more the second moved away from him.
So too the more Yisrael sinned the more Hashem was distanced from them. As Rashi says (Devarim 11:13): “If you leave Me one day I’ll leave you two.”
