Transcript
Our series today is sponsored by the Sakkal family, לעילוי נשמת אברהם בן אפרים, רפואה שלמה הדסה רחל בת חנה גולדה. We're in the final beracha of the Amidah, the beracha of Sim Shalom. We discussed the historical precedent the Sfas Emes introduced us to, that after Yehoshua took them into the land, seven years of conquest, seven years of division, and when the Malachim saw the peace the Jewish people had in Israel, המברך את עמו ישראל בשלום. We've offered several interpretations of what is this hope, what is this tefillah, what is this prayer, what is this request for shalom? Shalom bayis, shalom between nations, shalom between ourselves. The Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschütz we saw the Ya'arot Devash said, this is the place in our davening that a Jew has to have special kavana that there be no machlokus. This is the time that we daven there's no kli machzik beracha, as Chazal tell us in several places that the vessel that holds all beracha. You could buy and you could acquire all the greatest delicacies in the market, if you don't have a bag, now they charge you for a bag, you have to bring your own bag, if you forget a bag, you could buy everything in the world, if you have no way to carry it, nothing to hold it, then you can't enjoy it. You could have all the beracha in the world, but if there isn't peace, you could have wealth, health, prosperity, but if you have no peace, then you have nothing. Many interpretations of what this hope and this prayer for shalom is. רב אברהם שור שליט״א in a piece that he only recently wrote shares that there's another definition of shalom. This is based on a שפת אמת פרשת וישלח. Says יעקב אבינו תיקן גופו עד שזה השתעבדות הגוף להנשמה נקרא שלום. When a person is able to reconcile, when we can relieve the tension, when we can create an integration between our body and our soul, they're not in conflict, they're not fighting, we're not drawn in separate directions, they're not competing for who we are, our identity. There isn't the guf and the neshama separate and apart, but when a person's able to establish and find a harmony between the guf and the neshama, who we are living and operating and navigating the physical world, but the essence of who we are authentically, the חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש, the neshama that's inside us, that harmony between the two is shalom. Shalom, peace is not only the peace between ourselves and others, it's not only peace through triumph over enemies, we'll get to that, שים שלום טובה וברכה. Why שים שלום טובה וברכה? We'll get to it. I'll just give you a little, a little preview. רב חיים קנייבסקי זצ״ל says, why don't we just say Sim Shalom? Why does it have to be שים שלום טובה וברכה? The answer is there can be a peace, a cease-fire, the world imposes upon you, but that's not a peace which is good, that's a shalom shehu ra. We ask for and daven for a shalom that's tova uv'racha, a peace that's genuinely good and true and lasting and right and righteous. It's not all peace. So there's peace between us and others, peace between us and enemies, peace within our homes. There's all kinds of definitions of peace, but in the most central definition of peace is an inner peace. It's the inner peace. So many people are haunted and struggling, so much mental challenges and a lack of health or mental hygiene is because people feel this tension, this inner tension, this inner turmoil. And therefore the central tefillah of Sim Shalom is for this hope between our neshama and our guf, a shleimos, to feel a sense of peace, to be at peace with ourselves and within ourselves, a peace between the guf and the neshama, which yields a sense of harmony and health. Rav Avraham Schorr continues, that's the middah of Aharon Avinu. And the Mishnah says of Aharon HaKohen, when the Mishnah says that Aharon was אוהב שלום ורודף שלום, we normally interpret that to mean between and among others. Aharon was able to bring, he had the tremendous strategy, amazing charisma, he was able to yield a sense of shalom between others. But Rav Avraham Schorr interprets it and expresses it beautifully in this essay, in this ma'amar, this sicha, that Aharon's attribute of אוהב שלום ורודף שלום was תיקון הגוף שיהיה בשלמות כי זה מידת אהרן הכהן. And again, expanding on the Sfas Emes, this ability to find an inner peace and an inner harmony between our body and our soul, between the different parts of who we are, to not be in competition, to not be distracted, to not fail to know our core identity, who we are. The Sim Shalom, the wish and the hope for peace is ultimately and centrally, maybe first and foremost, an inner peace within ourselves. I'll say one last one and then we'll continue our introduction of Sim Shalom, why does it change? At least Ashkenaz, we say Sim Shalom in the morning and then Mincha, Ma'ariv we say Shalom Rav. There are some exceptions like a fast day we say Sim Shalom even at Mincha. Some say Sim Shalom at Mincha one day a week, namely Shabbos Mincha. So there's all these anomalies. Why do we change? One of the few berachos of the Amidah that we change. We'll pick up with and ask why, but I want to end one more interpretation of what this hope and this prayer for shalom is. So what is Sim Shalom, what are we asking for for Shalom? So one other interpretation is not only peace, we've been translating Shalom as peace, but Shalem means to be complete, to feel whole, to feel whole and to feel complete. Rav Yisrael Salanter famously taught that we have a halacha in Shulchan Aruch. If you have in front of you a small little roll, a small little roll, but it's whole, it's complete, or you have this enormous wedding challah, but somebody ripped off the end, somebody cut off a little piece, it's chaser, it's missing. Which one is proper to make the bracha on? Do you make the Hamotzi on the tiny little roll that's barely a minimum measure, but it's whole? Or do you make the bracha on the groisse challah, this enormous simcha challah? It's humongous, it's twice the size of the Bar Mitzvah kid himself, that his grandfather will be called upon to make the Hamotzi, but it's, but it's missing a little bit. So Shulchan Aruch says explicitly: You make the bracha on the shalem. And Rav Yisrael Salanter said, "You see, it's more important to be a shalem than a gadol." More important to be whole, to be complete, than it is to be big, than it is to be great. It's not a matter of how large it is, it's a matter of how complete, well-rounded, how full. So one of the interpretations Sim Shalom, we're asking Hashem in this final bracha is Hashem let me feel shalem. A gadol, of course we work, we strive, we have ambition, but even before being a gadol, we place a focus on middos, a focus on being somebody who is a shalem. So not only Sim Shalom, but Sim Shalem. Let me feel, let me achieve, let me be whole and complete with middos in my life. We'll pick up with the introduction of Sim Shalom of why it sometimes changes.
