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MAY 7, 2020 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
Between the Lines
No Justice, No Peace By Eytan Kobre
Peace without truth is a false peace. - R’ Menachem Mendel of Kotzk
F
rom first century Roman Emperor Hadrian to U.S. President Ronald Reagan, formidable world leaders for thousands of years have adhered to an ideology of “peace through strength.” Reagan put it this way: “We know that peace is the condition under which mankind was meant to flourish. Yet peace does not exist of its own will. It depends on us, on our courage to build it and guard it and pass it on to future generations.” Or, in Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” Peace cannot be attained at the expense of truth, justice, and values. The Blasphemer was the son of an Egyptian man and a Jewish woman, Shlomis bas Divri – the only Jewish woman to be with an Egyptian man during the Jewish people’s exile in Egypt (Vayikra 24:10-11). She was known as Shlomis because she chirped incessantly, “Peace upon you, peace upon you,” and she sought peace with anyone and everyone (Rashi, Vayikra 24:11).
The root of Shlomis’s errant ways, explains R’ Shalom Schwadron, was her misplaced relationship with peace. She believed that peace must be pursued and attained at all costs – even if it meant compromising her Jewish identity and Jewish ideals of modesty. To her, the stark differences between the Jewish people (who maintained their identity as such) and their degenerate Egyptian oppressors was something to be downplayed. And so, she developed a misguided philosophy of peace and love for all, which started with her constant calls of “peace upon you, peace upon you” and ended with a wayward son. Peace is, to be sure, a coveted and core Torah value. “The whole Torah is for the sake of promoting peace” (Gittin 59b; Mishlei 3:17). Even if they commit idolatry, the Jewish people will be spared calamity if there is peace amongst them (Bereishis Rabba 38:6). Making peace between others is one of the few enumerated deeds for which “the fruits a person enjoys in this world, while the principal remains intact for him in the hereafter” (Pei’ah 1:1). Not only is shalom (peace) one of G-d’s names (Vayikra Rabba 9:9), G-d even permitted His name to be erased for the sake of making peace between husband and wife (Sukka 53b). “Peace is the only vessel G-d could find to adequately hold blessing for the Jewish people” (Uktzin 3:11). Peace encompasses all
blessing (Vayikra Rabba 9:9). The exhortations to make peace seem limitless. But even peace has its limits – it must always yield to truth and justice and Torah principles. “Where there is justice, there is truth; where there is truth, there is peace” (Yerushalmi, Ta’anis 4:2). The only true peace is one accompanied by rebuke (Bereishis Rabba 54:3). Rather than creating animosity, one who adjudicates a truthful judgment makes peace (Mechilta of R’ Shimon bar Yochai, Yisro 19). “Wherever there is justice, there is peace; wherever there is peace, there is justice” (Derech Eretz Zuta, Perek HaShalom). For truth, justice, and peace are all principles on which the world endures – none may be compromised to attain the others (Avos 1:18). Perhaps that is the reason that specifically “scholars increase peace in the world” (Berachos 64a). Only our scholars, explains the Alter of Kelm, are perfectly attuned to the truth and justice demanded by the Torah, so only they can walk the delicate balance between a false peace and a genuine one rooted in the Torah’s absolute truths. In directing Moshe to “say to the Kohanim, the sons of Aharon, and say to them that they should not become impure to any person in the nation” (Vayikra 21:1), G-d stressed that these were “sons of Aharon” (even though
they were the only Kohanim at the time) to emphasize that while they should draw on their father Aharon’s core trait – peace – they must never do so in such a manner as to “become impure [in the spiritual sense] to any person” (Chasam Sofer, Vayikra 21:1). Peace should be pursued vigorously, but never by compromising truth, justice, or values. Indeed, Hillel taught as much: “Be from the disciples of Aharon; loving peace and pursuing peace; loving the creations and bringing them close to the Torah” (Avos 1:12). Certainly, strive to be a disciple of Aharon – “love peace and pursue peace,” even “love the creations” to attain it – but only by bringing others close to the Torah, not vice versa (Be’er Avos 1:12; Chaim Sheyesh Bahem, Avos 1:12). Pinchas, Aharon’s grandson, embodied the delicate balance between pursuing peace and insisting on truth and justice. When some of the Jewish people committed acts of immorality and idolatry, G-d sent a plague that killed 24,00 people until Pinchas killed two offenders, Zimri and Kozbi, ending the catastrophe swiftly (Bamidbar 25:1-10). But even after committing such violence, the Kotzker Rebbe explains, Pinchas was given a “Covenant of Peace” (Bamidbar 25:12) – peace of all things – because peace cannot be attained by compromising one’s values. While society tends to regard
