Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Shalom

Last week I said a shiur on the theme of shalom and chanuka. Shalom is related to shleimus, completion or perfection, or coming to peace with oneself as well as others. I opened with a chakira into exactly what this idea means: are we usually at peace until machlokes interrupts, and shalom restores the natual state of things, or are we fundementally conflicted unless we strive to attain a state of shalom?
The second possibility sheds new light on the expression "bikeish Ya'akov lasheves b'shalvah" - it was not passivity Ya'akov wanted, but he was a mevakeish, striving toward an elusive goal.
(I wrote up the mail points here: http://kallahmagazine.com/news.htm)

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:07 PM

    Very nice. How do you reconcile that Chanuksh was a milchama against Yavan and you were contrasting Eisav to Yaakov. Doesn't Eisav represent Edom?

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  2. Anonymous6:11 AM

    see Rambam end of hil chanuka, re sholom, see also likutei sichos volume 15 page 372

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