Shabbat Shalom

This past week we continued to explore the "roots" of Shabbat by taking a close look at the shoresh (word root) of the word "Shalom."  We learned that any word built from the 3-letter shoresh of "shin-lamed-mem," from which the word shalom is built, must have something to do with "whole or complete."  For example, the Hebrew word "l'shalem" means to pay, since you are "completing a deal" with the payment. Therefore, the English word "peace" is not a true translation of shalom. A more accurate translation would be "a sense of completion."  To explain this more clearly, I asked the students if any of them had ever been assigned a long-term project in school, several weeks in advance of its due date. Of course, everyone raised their hands. Then I asked who had gone home the day the project was assigned, and had begun to work on the project immediately, planning the pacing and preparation to be sure it would be completed to the best of their ability by its due date. A few hands still remained in the air.  I asked those students how they felt when they handed in the completed project on or before its due date. They all agreed that they felt good about, and proud of their work. This, I explained to them, is the true meaning of "shalom" - that sense of completion you get when you know that you have worked hard on a project and accomplished it to the best of your ability, feeling proud of your accomplishment. 

We then discussed what the true meaning of the phrase, "Shabbat Shalom" is, according to the "root meaning" of the phrase. We reviewed how the Talmudic era Rabbis described how we must "balance on the timeline" (i.e. use time as best as we can to work in partnership with God to create a just world) for six days of the week.  If we work hard, to the best of our ability each of the six days to accomplish this task, we can "enter" the seventh day, Shabbat, with that wonderful feeling of "completion," knowing that we can now "rest" (i.e. step back and admire God's work and our own),  having done what we could to help bring about a just world.

Of course, because we're human, we won't be able to accomplish everything all at once, and we may make mistakes. Therefore, Shabbat isn't only a time to reflect on the previous week's accomplishments; it's also a time to look forward to the next 6 days, to plan how to improve our actions, and continue to do our part to effect "Tikkun Olam" ("repair the world") as individuals and as a community. When we wish everyone "Shabbat Shalom" at the start of Shabbat, we are really saying, "I hope you are entering this wonderful day we've been given to appreciate the universe God created and your own role in it, with that wonderful sense of completion that comes with knowing you've done everything you can to bring about a better world."
All that with just two words!

Shabbat Shalom.