Shalom, of course means peace, hello and goodbye. But what’s the fourth meaning? Shalom is also one of the names of Hashem. So central and crucial is the concept of peace in our tradition, that it is embodied within the very essence of the existence of the Almighty.
In parashat Pekudei, the Torah describes the great celebration that took place when we dedicated the new Mishkan, and the altar within it, in the wilderness. For the Haftorah, we have a matching passage from the Prophets, in the first book of Kings, which describes King Solomon’s celebration when he dedicated the first Temple. At that time, Solomon reflected on the fact that his great father King David had wanted desperately to build the Temple. In fact, David saw this as his ultimate mission in life – and yet, he was denied this privilege! But why?
In the first book of Chronicles we are told that Hashem said to David “כי איש מלחמות אתה ודמים שפכת - for you are a man of war and you have shed blood”. Now of course, the purpose of all the wars that David fought and led our people into, was in order to preserve life, to protect us from our enemies who sought to destroy us. He engaged in wars through which he hearkened to the word of Hashem, to defend our people. Nonetheless, since he had blood on his hands, he was not the ideal person to build the House of Hashem.
Instead, his son Shlomo, coming from the route ‘שלום’ - meaning peace, was the ideal king to do it. Indeed, throughout his reign, King Solomon did not fight a single battle. We can now understand why in parashat Yitro Hashem tells us that for the purpose of a stone altar, we may not use hewn stones. And the reason is “כי חרבך הנפת עליה ותחללה”, because for that purpose you would have had to use knives or swords which can be implements of war and therefore you would be defiling that altar.
That is why Shalom is the concluding word, it’s the bottom line of all of our most important prayers. It’s the last word of our Kaddish, it’s the last word of our ‘ברכת המזון – Grace after meals’. It’s the last word of ‘ברכת כהנים - the priestly blessings. It is the last word of the Amidah.
In ‘פרקי אבות - The Ethics of the Fathers’, Hillel taught that we should be the disciples of Aaron the High Priest, to be ‘אוהב שלום ורודף שלום - to love peace and pursue peace always’. Therefore the Gemarah in tractate Brachot tells us that it is so important, that every single morning in our prayers, we should praise Hashem who is ‘עושה שלום ובורא את הכל - He makes peace and He creates everything’, indicating that nothing is of any value unless there is peace.
It is therefore so suitable that ‘Shalom’ is one of the names of the Almighty. When I greet you and I say “שלום עליכם”, I am not just saying may peace be upon you, I am also saying may Hashem be with you. Of course, on Shabbat we want peace in our homes, and we want the spirit of Hashem to be with us. As a result, the blessing that we give is Shabbat Shalom. On Shabbat there is a stronger bond with Hashem so let’s please join together to pray with all our hearts, for the healing of all those injured, for the safe return of those taken as hostages, as well as Divine Protection for our brave IDF soldiers, police officers, medical professionals, firefighters, ZAKA members, security personnel and all those citizens protecting us in Israel as well as around the world, and for those who need healing, shidduchim, children or parnassah and may we be blessed to have the most awesome, gorgeous, beautiful, peaceful, healthy, amazing, relaxed, spiritual, safe, quiet and sweet Shabbat.
