Nothing is more dreamed of and sought after, especially these days with our soldiers dying every day and our hostages, languishing unspeakable torture in the tunnels of hell in Gaza, than peace. It feels cruelly mocking each time, and we say them several times each and every day, Oseh Shalom B’Maromav, Hu Ya’aseh Shalom, Aleynu V’al Kol Yisrael V’Imru Amen, He who makes peace in His heights, May He make peace on us and on all Yisrael, and let us say Amen.

In the secular world of politics, we daily hear cries for Peace which, there, is equated as a “Cease Fire”, not as an actual anything, but as an absence of “Fire”, of fighting. As we’ve experience time and again, especially in modern times, merely ceasing fire at best brings a temporary quiet, often setting the stage for even more violent atrocities in an ever-more quickly approaching future.

It seems that we really have no idea what this always dreamed of and striven after “Peace” is.

The language of Torah, the Sfat Emet, The Language Of Truth (also the name of a very deep book of Chassidic thought by Rabbi Aryeh Leib Alter, the founder and first Rebbe of the Ger Dynasty but here used specifically designate the Hebrew language.) presents the first clue, using the word Shalom to mean Peace. But Shalom and Shleimut means much more than that–it means completion and perfection. We end the Aleinu prayer with the phrase that He and His name be unified, Yihyeh Adonay Echod U’Shmo Echad, describing a future of perfection when we are all able to see the underlying Unity of all Existence, when we can see beyond the apparent dualism which obscures everything and which leads us to chase the false god we call Peace, but only mean cease fire.

As we know in our current war against Iran and its proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, any respite which will give them the opportunity to rearm and reorganize in order to attack us again and again with inhuman violation and violence, as they promise, makes a mockery of the very concept of Shalom, Peace.

Pinchas, for whom this week’s parsha is named, is promised the Brit Shalom, the Everlasting Covenant of Peace, but we learn that he only earns this through the seemingly horrific act of impaling Zimri and Kuzbi with a spear, putting a stop to their indecency which had led to a massive plague killing the Jewish People at that moment. Furthermore, we learn that Pinchas becomes Eliyahu HaNavi, Elijah, the Prophet, who will some day announce the Mashiach, the once and future King of Israel who will herald the future of Perfection/Peace (that word again).

The Hebrew letters that spell Mashiach are related to the word for speech, Siach (משיח/שיה). Curiously, Pinchas’ act which earned him this eternal and honored role was done in silence, not in words. But we express our hope, several times a day, for real peace, in those words “Oseh Shalom”.

Shalom transcends our understanding, especially at this time. Perhaps that’s why it’s so often confused with the mere cessation of violence. rather than a true resolution and a transformation of Evil into Good.

For the last seven months, I have daily prayed and continue to pray for the true peace of our winning the unconditional surrender of pure evil.

Shabbat Shalom