The Richer Meaning of "Shalom”
Americans increasingly feel that something in our civic life has come loose. Trust in institutions has fallen, national pride has weakened, and loneliness—especially among younger Americans—has surged. Our politics often feels less like disagreement and more like social fracture. Recently, in The Atlantic , Peter Wehner reached for an ancient word to describe what our society seems to lack: shalom . The Hebrew term is often translated simply as “ peace ,” but in Jewish tradition it carries a richer meaning—one that may help explain what is missing in American civic life today. I have learned recently that i n biblical and Rabbinic thought, shalom , like many Hebrew words, is far more complex than just one word; it refers to the idea of wholeness—a condition in which relationships between individuals, communities, and the moral order are rightly aligned. It describes not merely the absence of conflict but a social environment in which people and in...