The Blessing of Peace

This week’s parshah caps off the book of Vayikra (Leviticus). The majority of the parshah deals with the rewards we are to receive if we follow God’s commandments and the punishments we would be deserving were we to negate his commandments. In the section discussing our possible rewards, the Torah writes:

“I will provide peace in the land…” [Leviticus: 26: 6]

God promises us a state of peace as a reward for keeping His commandments and adhering to His word. However, the next verse writes:

“You will pursue your enemies; and they will fall before you by the sword” [Leviticus: 26: 7]

How is it possible that God promises us a state of peace while at the same time ensuring that we will go to war with our enemies!? Despite the fact that He promises our victory, isn’t “peace” supposed to describe an ideal era, void of war and strife in the world, where all nations have reached a balanced and equal relationship with one another? Clearly, the “peace” that God promises us is not the same “peace” that we have been brought up with! So, what is “peace” in the Jewish worldview?


In the final teaching of the Jewish Oral Law, we read:

“Rabbi Shimon Ben (son of) Chalafta said: ‘The Holy One, Blessed is He, could find no container which would hold Israel’s blessings as well as peace, as it says: ‘Hashem (God) will give might to his people, Hashem will bless His people with peace’ ” [Uktzin: 3: 12]

According to this passage, peace is not one of the blessings that God bestows upon us; rather peace is the medium in which we are able to receive all of God’s blessings. This is the reason why we mention “peace” upon the conclusion of the Shemoneh Esrei (silent prayer), the Priestly Blessings, and Bircas HaMazon (Grace after meals). After reciting all of our needs and desires in each of those prayers, we terminate with a request for peace, for peace is the idyllic vessel for us to obtain all of those requests and blessings that we previously prayed for before God.

Although we have defined what peace does (acting as a vessel for blessing), we have yet to define what peace is itself. Furthermore, if we were to live in a state that lacked “peace”, does that mean we would never receive any of God’s blessings?

Rabbi Mordechai Elon explains that peace is described just as we know it: a state of mutual harmony between two parties. However, the “two parties” that peace exists between are Heaven and Earth. Peace is a state where there are no spiritual arguments or obstacles between the spiritual Heavenly sphere and the physical Earthly sphere. It is a situation where a completely direct connection and flow exists between Heaven and Earth, with nothing getting in the way. Therefore, because there exists a channel that combines Heaven to Earth directly, peace is a time where God’s blessings are able to be transferred directly from His heavenly abode to us on Earth.

This state of peace can only happen if the inhabitants of Earth are behaving in the way that God in heaven expects them to behave (*see footnote*). Presently, the world we live in is clearly not in this state of peace; our corrupted ways have produced the obstructions and blockages between us and God that denies us that direct and efficient vessel in which to receive His blessings. Sure, God is watching over us constantly and His blessings do make their way down to Earth; but because of the spiritual impediments we have created, those blessings either get stuck on the way or take a very long time to reach us.

Returning to this week’s portion; at the end of the section discussing the punishments we were to receive if we ignore God’s commandments, God ensures that we would eventually repent from that sinful state and we would ultimately return to His service. In that section of the parshah, God promises us:

“I will remember My covenant with יעקוב (Jacob)…” [Leviticus: 26: 42]

Normally, our patriarch Jacob’s name is spelled as “יעקב”, without the letter “ו” in it. Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi, 1040 –1105, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Torah) tells us that there are five places in all of Holy Scripture that Jacob’s name is written with the unusual letter “ו”, and there are also exactly five places that the prophet Elijah’s name (אליהו) is written without the usual letter “ו”. Rashi explains that this hints to the idea that Jacob took a letter from Elijah’s name and would only return it when Elijah would come and bring the redemption to his (Jacob’s) children. Although this is a very nice thought, why is it specifically the letter “ו” that is taken?

The letter “ו” is the only Hebrew letter that connects two words to one another, it can therefore be translated as “and”. Each Hebrew letter has endless significance unto itself, and the letter “ו” in particular relates to the idea of connection, therefore it is used to connect words. On a deeper level, it is an entirely straight letter, without any deviations or breakages; it is simply a straight line. Therefore, not only does it represent connection, but it represents a straight and direct connection. “ו” is therefore the letter that represents the direct and perfect relationship between God and the world; it represents real "peace". This ideal state of peace will only come with the final redemption, therefore Jacob takes specifically the letter “ו” from Elijah until that time. Once the redemption arrives, the “ו” is returned and ultimately that direct unwavering connection between Heaven and Earth returns as well.

Every Jewish month has been given its own letter, and the Jewish month that we find ourselves in now, Iyar, relates to the letter “ו”. It is this month that contains the great majority of the 49 days that we are counting between the holidays of Pesach and Shavuot. Each day of the 49 days was meant to act as a cleansing process of the 49 levels of impurity that the Jews found themselves in upon leaving Egypt. So too, in our time, each of these 49 days are meant to destroy and remove those 49 spiritual barriers of impurity between us and God. May we merit to remove all of the spiritual obstructions between Heaven and Earth and ultimately receive God’s blessings in a state of real peace.



Good Shabbos,

NZL



*The state of peace for the entire world must be when the entire world is doing God’s bidding. If only the Jews were completely following God’s command, then this state of peace would only fall upon the Jews and the land of Israel. This is why the verse says that God will “provide peace in the land”. “The land” here means the land of Israel. Because the promises in this week’s parshah are directed to the Jewish people alone, God ensures that “peace” will bestowed upon “the land” of Israel in particular.