Only in Exile - נחמו נחמו עמי | Rabbi Nachum Binder

We are entering now the period of שבע דנחמתא. And the Ribono shel Olam begs of Klal Yisroel, Find comfort. Comfort yourselves. And the question is, How can we find comfort? After all, The Beis HaMikdash is still not rebuilt. We are living in difficult times. So how can we find comfort in the Galus in which we find ourselves in? The Heiliger Belzer Rav, R’ Yissachar Dov, one Friday night, was walking on the outskirts of town, where from a distance, he heard the sweet sound of a blatt Gemara coming out of a small hut. As he approached the hut, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He sees a young soldier, fully uniformed, swaying over the Gemara, singing the sweetest words of אמר אביי, אמר רבא. Puzzled, the Belzer Rav looks at the soldier and says: Who are you? What are you doing here? And the soldier told him, I'm a soldier in the army and I'm off for Shabbos. To which the Belzer Rav asked him, Why don't you come into town? I'll find you a family, a comfortable bed, hot meals. Why are you here in this hut, spending Shabbos all alone? And the soldier looked at the Rebbe and said, I'll tell you my story. When I was first drafted into the army, the one fear that I had was What's going to be with Shabbos Kodesh? And with much Siyata d’Shmaya, I found favor in the eyes of my commanding officer, until I became his right-hand man. And after a little while, I approached him one day and I said, You see how devoted I am, you see how hard I work. I'll work even harder for six days a week, but please, give me off every Shabbos. And the officer responded, Yes. You can take Shabbos off. I was so full of gratitude to the Ribono shel Olam, that at that moment I promised myself, I will not waste my Shabbos. Six hours of Shabbos I will devote to davening, eating and sleeping, but for the remaining 18 hours, I will learn the heiliger Torah on Shabbos Kodesh. And that's why I'm here myself, spending my Shabbos with the Ribono shel Olam. The Belzer Rav looked up to Shomayim and said, Heiliger Bashefer, ver veyst, who knows, if it's not people like this that are holding back Moshiach from coming. And what the Belzer Rav meant to say was because this Nachas Ruach that the Ribono shel Olam has from seeing such heroism, such devotion, such clinging to Him, is something that can only take place in Galus. When Moshiach comes, we won't have these acts of clinging to the Ribono shel Olam, like we have in Galus. And מוריי ורבותיי, I think that that's where we can find our Nechama. Yes, we've been in Galus for so long. It's summertime. It's vacation. And thousands and thousands of Yidden are working on ourselves to be more Kadosh, to be closer to the Ribono shel Olam. That’s a Nachas Ruach that's not despite our Galus, but it's because we're in Galus we have the opportunity to bring this Nachas Ruach to the Ribono shel Olam. And if we internalize this message, we can hear those words of the Nevi’im,