Interfaith Meeting on "The Peace of God in the World" - Brussels, Belgium
19th December 2001

The Sanctity of peace.

His all Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch, President of the European commission, religious and spiritual leaders of the Jewish Christian and Muslim faiths, friends…

Firstly, let me thank the liaison office of the Orthodox Church to the European Union and the group of policy advisers to the President of the European Commission for organizing this important conference.

Unfortunately, religion is often blamed for much of the world's troubles and today is no exception. Yet at the same time, paradoxically, many of those who were critical of religion are coming to the realization that it is religion that can cure so much of the pain and confusion they experience. Today, more than ever, people want to pray but don't know how. Those who were sceptical of religion are packing churches mosques and synagogues in the aftermath of September 11th, because they know that there they will learn how to pray and even more fundamentally they will learn about a G-d who listens to their prayers.

Today people are desperate for security. Unfortunately nothing in our material world can offer a guarantee for security. Yet in religion one finds security in faith and it is for that reason as well that since September 11th more and more people are keen to read and study about faith, their own as well as others.

Finally, more than ever people yearn for peace. Wars, strife, persecution, racism seem to have been with us from the beginning of time. World peace is a universal ideal yet we have come to the sad realization that military, political and even economic solutions have failed miserably. Does religion have a contribution to make? Is it presumptuous to think that religion might offer a solution? I believe not. I believe that religion is the key to achieving a peaceful world. My optimism is based on my own faith-Judaism- and the value it places on peace. In the course of this paper I hope to share some of these principle with you. I would also like to examine two Biblical narratives, which viewed through the prism of Talmudic teaching, offer a bold and radical approach to the value and practice of peace.

Judaism places enormous emphasis on peace. R. Shimon .b.Gamliel - a first century rabbinic leader- taught that "The world endures by three things: Truth, Justice and Peace" (Avot 1:18). Thus, peace is considered one of the most exulted ideals in Judaism eclipsed perhaps only by justice, and only because justice is a prerequisite for peace. For if there is no justice there can be no peace. "Truth" however, is not necessarily a prerequisite for peace. On the contrary, "Truth" can at times destroy peace. Thus the Talmud rules that when the ideals of "Peace" and "Truth" conflict we abandon the "Truth" and strive instead for "Peace".(TB Yebamot 65b)

Elsewhere (Bamidbar Rabbah 11:7.), the rabbis taught that the value of peace is equal to all of creation. That is to say there is nothing else on earth that is more important than peace.

The centrality of peace to the Jewish religion is given expression in our prayers where there is hardly a blessing or prayer in the liturgy that does not conclude with the prayer for peace. Every morning we begin our prayers thanking God "Who forms light and creates darkness, Who makes peace and creates all things".

Three times a day we conclude our holiest prayer- the Amidah- with the words "Sim Shalom" grant us peace.

Even the mourner's prayer -the Kadish- concludes with the words "Oseh Shalom Bimromav hu Ya'aseh Shalom Aleinu". May he who grants peace in high places grant us peace.

Every Friday night before families sit down to their traditional Sabbath dinner they bless their children. This to ends with a prayer for peace "May the Lord turn his face to you, and give you peace".

The ideal of peace in Jewish thought is very broad. It encompasses domestic peace with ones spouse and family known as "Shalom Bayit" - peace in the home, peace amongst neighbours and friends, peace in ones community, as well as peace amongst members of different religions and cultures. To this end the Talmud legislates that Jews' social responsibilities extend to members of other faiths - "Mipnei Darki Shalom" - "In order to foster the ways of peace".

There are two passages in particular that I would like to share with you. They are both based on a biblical narrative and they yield, as I said before, an entirely novel, indeed radical approach to the concept of peace.

The first is the Biblical narrative of the Tower of Babel. (Genesis 11:1-9) There we read that a generation after Noah and his family were saved from the great flood the people banned together to build an enormous tower that soared to the very heavens. God was not pleased with the project and halted any further construction and cooperation between the people by confusing their languages. Without a common language with which to communicate there was no possibility of any further cooperation on the project.

It is an interesting narrative yet it begs the question: Why was God angry? What was wrong with building a tower?

The rabbinic response is that in building the tower they were defying God and questioning his omnipotence. They feared that God might renege on his promise to Noah not to flood the world again. They foolishly believed that by building a Tower they might reach God in heaven and do battle with him to remove the threat of his destruction once and for all.

In other words to put it crudely, they sought to kill God.

A fascinating answer but it raises a further question; if the people of Babel were guilty of rejecting and defying God, why were they off so lightly? Why was their only punishment the confusion of their language? Is this the same God who wiped out an entire world population only a generation earlier?

Why did the generation of the flood deserve annihilation whereas the generation of Babel was punished with nothing more than an inconvenience? On the contrary, it would seem that of the two generations it was the later that sinned more grievously. After all the generation of the flood never rejected God. They might have cheated robed and raped their fellow human beings but they never openly sought to wage war with God. Why were they punished so harshly? And why were the people of Babel let off so lightly?

The answer given by the Talmud is that so long as there is peace amongst fellow men there is hope for society. The generation of Babel may have defied God but they lived in harmony with each other. The testament to this was their enormous cooperation on what must have been a hugely ambitious project. It is for this alone that God was willing to forgive them. The previous generation however was doomed. Although they acknowledged God since they had no regard for each other there was no hope and they were destroyed.

In other words when there is peace God is willing to overlook his own honour, but if there is no peace the honour of God has no value.

The second Biblical reading is the law of the Sottah. The Bible states (Numbers 5:11-21) That if a man suspects his wife of being unfaithful he is to bring her before the High Priest who in turn gives her a potion to drink which determines if she is telling the truth. The potion was extremely important inasmuch as it had the ability of demonstrating a woman's innocence and restoring marital harmony, mutual trust and love. Amongst the ingredients of the potion was a piece of parchment inscribed with the name of God. This parchment was placed into the solution where it is dissolved.

Regarding this law the Talmud (TJ Sottah 1:4, 16d) states that peace is so important that God instructs the priest to dissolve his holy name so that it might be achieved. The Talmud concludes that if in order to establish peace between husband and wife the name of God, which was written in holiness, may be blotted out, how much more so should we leave no stone unturned to bring about peace for the world as a whole.

In both these passages the Talmud is teaching us a profound lesson. And that is that peace is not incidental to faith but it is part and parcel of faith! It is not incidental to the knowledge of God, it is part of that knowledge!

Peace is not simply a good idea for faith communities it is the raison d'etre of faith communities!

The people of Babel live in spite of their defiance of God. The generation of the flood perishes in spite of their acceptance of God…

Peace is as important as the worship of God!

In fact what the Talmud teaches us is that peace is even more important than the honour of God. God commands that his own holy name be destroyed in order to bring peace.

How awesome!

In fact elsewhere the Talmud says a very strange thing. That peace is in fact the name of G-d! (TB Shabbat 10b). What does this mean? In light of the above I believe the Talmud is telling us that to live in peace is to know God.

This is what I find so refreshing and radical about the Jewish view of peace and the question of peaceful coexistence. And this is why the title of today's conference "A peace of God in the world is apt" For living in peace is essentially to live with a peace of God.

There is a further point. Peaceful coexistence does not mean tolerance for the other. It means appreciation for the other. Shalom comes from word Shalem - Whole. We must recognise that alone we are incomplete, it is only when we see the value of the other that we ourselves can be whole.

We as religious leaders have a particularly heavy responsibility to teach the world about peace. The Talmud (TB Berakhot 64b.) places the responsibility of teaching peace squarely on the shoulders of the rabbis "Talmidei hahamim Marbim Shalom ba-Olam". It is an awesome responsibility.

My proposal is simple. Let us begin to teach those who look to us for spiritual guidance that peace is part of faith, part of the religious experience, part of drawing near to God. Let us teach that one cannot fully be considered a practitioner of any faith if one ignores the call for peace. Let us teach that one must be zealous and uncompromising in the pursuit of peace.

The task is daunting so allow me to conclude with a Hasidic tale about the great Master R. Zusiya of Anapoli.

R. Zusia said: When I was young I thought I could change the world. As I got older I realized that was not possible so I thought I could change my Country. As I grew older I realized that was not going to happen so I sought to change my City. As I grew older still, I realized that to was out of my reach. So I decided I could change my family only to learn that I couldn't. I am an old man now and I have learned to try and change myself.

Let us start with ourselves and those closest to us, our families, students and congregants let us teach them the sanctity of peace. And may we merit to see a world united in love and brotherhood. A world in which our everyday peaceful coexistence mirrors the image of our creator, in all his majesty and glory.

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