During the Yizkor service that we recite four times a year, on each pilgrimage festival along with Yom Kippur, the cantor chants the words from Isaiah, “Grass withers, flowers fade, when God’s breath blows on them, indeed, people are but grass.”

These words of Isaiah are also chanted this Shabbat in the Haftorah of Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of comfort following Tisha B’Av, and kicking off the seven messages of redemption that we read until Rosh Hashanah.

While these words may seem to denigrate the existence of the human beings on this earth, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz teaches the meaning is the exact opposite. Rather, this verse seems to emphasize the importance of not only the quantity we are on this earth but the the quality of what we do with that time.

My elementary school child and I are reading a book on How To Invest As A Child. While the suggestions are all logical, the book emphasizes the most important tool a child has in investing is time.

While this is true for a child, the most important tool we have as we get older is experience and wisdom that comes with that time.

These next seven weeks of comfort will be different than years past. As we are in the midst of war, as thousands of families in Israel recite Kaddish for their loved ones, the comfort for Shabbat Nachamu must come from us. We understand this year more than any other year in recent memory the power of Isaiah’s words. Yes, human beings are like a blade of grass that God can blow away with one breath. We are still so fresh in grief, that we cannot fathom what has occurred. Just like fire and water, esh and mayim, can be a blessing or a curse, so too can ruach, wind. it can be destructive and blow the flower away, or it can be a breath of God that inspires us through difficult times.

We have seven weeks to usher in a new year, and we have seven weeks to bring with us what we have been through this past year. As the wind continues to blow, may we guide that spirit in the direction of good, in the direction of love, and in the direction of peace.