<html><head><title>[Aspaqlaria] Ways of Peace</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/wp-content/themes/twentyeleven/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" /></head><body>Aspaqlaria has posted a new item, '<a href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2013/07/ways-of-peace.shtml">Ways of Peace</a>'<br />
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<p>In <a href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2013/06/infinite-worth.shtml/comment-page-1#comment-58320" target="_blank">a comment</a> on my recent post “<a href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2013/06/infinite-worth.shtml" target="_blank">Infinite Worth</a>“, Raffi asked:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hey – would you elaborate on your intriguing definition of darkhei Shalom as “walking the path of He Who makes peace”?</p></blockquote>
<p><em>Vav</em> — I’d be glad to. (Now aren’t you glad I don’t inject my sense of humor into this blog too often?)</p>
<p>The factoid behind Raffi’s question is that the phrase is usually taken to be pragmatic. The way I learned it in grade school was that we violate Shabbos to save non-Jews because it’s important to keep the peace lest they kill us. Similarly, there is a concept that is batted around synonymously, “<em>mishum eivah</em>” — because of animosity.</p>
<p>Despite these understandings being commonplace in discussion, they do not stand up to scrutiny. This was first brought to my attention in an email from Yeshivat Har Etzion (“Gush”) too many years ago to find, which contained notes from a lecture given by Rav Aharon Lichtenstein shlit”a. The same thesis appears in his “In The Human and Social Factor in Halakhah”, Tradition 6 (2002) pp. 89-114, made <a href="http://www.lookstein.org/articles/human_social_factor.htm">available on-line</a> by the Lookstein Center for Jewish Education (Bar Ilan Univ.) What I write below will be based on my memory of the email in addition to the essay.</p>
<p>Most trivially, neither idiom is used not used exclusively where there is real risk to life or limb, but that would have to be the meaning of the phrase if it were pragmatic grounds to override Shabbos. <em>Mishum eiva</em> is applied between father and child on <a href="http://e-daf.com/index.asp?ID=3048&size=1">Bava Metzia 12a</a>; on <a href="http://e-daf.com/index.asp?ID=&size=1">Yuma 12b</a> to the kohein gadol; and on <a href="http://e-daf.com/index.asp?ID=1938&size=1">Kesuvos 58b</a>, between husband and wife. So avoiding <em>eivah</em> is a value of some sort detached from the value of saving people from future retaliation.</p>
<p>But we were looking at<em> darkhei Shalom</em> in particular.</p>
<p>There is a story in the <em>gemara</em> (<a href="http://e-daf.com/index.asp?ID=1202&size=1">Sukkah 53a</a>) where David haMelekh dug deep holes into the ground as part of his preparations for the future building of the Beis haMiqdash. He dug far enough down to hit the <em>tehom</em>, the subterranean water, and the water came up threatening to drown the world. Achitofel wrote the name of G-d on a pot sherd and through it down the hole, thus stopping the water. He reasoned from the law of <em>sotah</em>, where a paragraph of the Torah that includes Hashem’s name is written on a parchment, dissolved in water (along with some dust from under the Beis haMiqdash) and given to a <em>sotah</em> — a married woman accused of adultery who then is found alone with the suspected paramour. Achitofel reasoned that if Hashem’s name may be erased to save one marriage, then of course it may be erased to save the entire world.</p>
<p>The Rama (<em>teshuvah </em>#11) says this is a general principle that preserving the peace is a value that can at times override prohibitions. As Rav Aharon Lichtenstein translates the relevant snippet of the responsum:</p>
<blockquote><p>We have learned from here that it is permissible to modify [the truth] for the sake of peace, and it is permissible to violate the injunction, “Thou shalt distance thyself from falsehood.” [The consideration of peace] also overrides the biblical prohibition of “Thou shalt not do thus to the Lord thy God,” which bans the erasure of God’s Name, as is explained in the <i>Sifri</i> to <i>Parashat Re’eh</i> and counted by the Rambam and the <i>Semag</i> in their respective enumerations of the mitsvot. Since this is so, I say that it is also the case that [peace] overrides the prohibition of defamation; in other words, it is permissible to defame another if one’s intention is for the sake of Heaven and for a good cause, [namely,] to promote peace.</p></blockquote>
<p>But what makes the whole thing open-and-shut is the Rambam’s explanation of how we are to relate to non-Jews and why (Hilkhos Melakhim 10:12):</p>
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<div dir="rtl">אַפִלּוּ הַגּוֹיִים צִוּוּ חֲכָמִים לְבַקַּר חוֹלֵיהֶם, וְלִקְבֹּר מֵתֵיהֶם עִם מֵתֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וּלְפַרְנַס עֲנִיֵּיהֶם בִּכְלַל עֲנִיֵּי יִשְׂרָאֵל, מִפְּנֵי דַּרְכֵּי שָׁלוֹם: הֲרֵי נֶאֱמָר “טוֹב-ה’ לַכֹּל; וְרַחֲמָיו, עַל-כָּל-מַעֲשָׂיו” (תהילים קמה:ט), וְנֶאֱמָר “דְּרָכֶיהָ דַרְכֵי-נֹעַם; וְכָל-נְתִיבוֹתֶיהָ שָׁלוֹם” (משלי ג,יז).</div>
<p>[Not only Jews and geirei toshav (resident aliens),] even for non-Jews our sages commanded to visit their sick, bury their dead [as] with the Jewish dead, support their poor among the Jewish poor, because of darkhei Shalom. For it says, “Hashem is good to all, and His Mercy is on all that He made.” (Tehillim 145 “Ashrei” v. 9). And it says, “[The Torah]‘s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace.” (<a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2803.htm#14">Mishlei 3:14</a>, also said when returning the Torah to the aron)</p></blockquote>
<p>The Rambam’s prooftexts show that <em>darkhei Shalom</em> is:</p>
<p>1- Imitatio dei. This is why I have been capitalizing the “S” in “<em>darkhei Shalom</em>“. I believe from this perspective, we are actually using Shalom / Peace in its use as an appelation for G-d. To go in His Peaceful Way.</p>
<p>Note how the kindnesses listed are behaviors we learn from Hashem’s examples:</p>
<blockquote>
<div dir="rtl">ואמר רבי חמא ברבי חנינא מאי דכתיב (דברים יג:ה) אחרי ה’ אלהיכם תלכו וכי אפשר לו לאדם להלך אחר שכינה והלא כבר נאמר (ד:כד) כי ה’ אלהיך אש אוכלה הוא אלא להלך אחר מדותיו של הקב”ה מה הוא מלביש ערומים דכתיב (בראשית ג:כא) ויעש ה’ אלהים לאדם ולאשתו כתנות עור וילבישם אף אתה הלבש ערומים הקב”ה ביקר חולים דכתיב (בראשית יח:א) וירא אליו ה’ באלוני ממרא אף אתה בקר חולים הקב”ה ניחם אבלים דכתיב (בראשית כה:יא) ויהי אחרי מות אברהם ויברך אלהים את יצחק בנו אף אתה נחם אבלים הקב”ה קבר מתים דכתיב (דברים לד:ו) ויקבר אותו בגיא אף אתה קבור מתים:</div>
<p>And Rabbi Chama beRabbi Chanina said: Why is it written, “You shall walk following Hashem your G-d”? (Daverim 13:5) It is possible for a person to walk following the Shechinah? Doesn’t it already say, “For Hashem your G-d is [like] a consuming Fire?” (4:24) Rather, it means to walk following the attributes of the Holy One blessed be He [as He shows Himself to us]. Just as He clothes the naked, as is written: “And Hashem E-lokim made for Adam and his wife cloaks of leather and dressed them (<a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt03.htm#21">Bereshis 3:21</a>) So too you should cloth the naked. HQBH visited the sick, as is written: “And Hashem appeared to [Avraham after his beris milah] in Oak-woods of Mamrei” (<a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0118.htm#1">Bereishis 18:1</a>) So you you should visit the sick. HQBH comforted mourners, as is written: “And it was after Avraham’s death, and G-d blessed his
son Yitzchaq” (<a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0125.htm#11">Bereishis 25:11</a>) So too you should comfort mourners. HQBH buried the dead, as is written: “And He buried [Moshe] in the valley” (<a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0534.htm#6">Devarim 34:6</a>). So too you should bury the dead.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 150px;">- <a href="http://e-daf.com/index.asp?ID=2380&size=1">Sotah 14a</a></p>
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<p>2- Darkei Shalom is <strong>the</strong> defining feature of halakhah.</p>
<p>Far from what I was taught as a youth, <em>darkhei Shalom</em> (and even <em>mishum eivah</em>, the avoidance of animosity) are not mere accommodations of an imperfect reality, but speak to the heart of Torah.</p><div class='sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded' id='like-post-wrapper-11004584-0-51d243d53b05d' data-src='http://widgets.wp.com/likes/#blog_id=11004584&post_id=0&origin=http://www.aishdas.org&obj_id=11004584-0-51d243d53b05d' data-name='like-post-frame-11004584-0-51d243d53b05d'><h3 class='sd-title'>Like this:</h3><div class='post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height:55px'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div><br />
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