June 13, 2022|י"ד סיון ה' אלפים תשפ"ב The Not-So-Elusive Search for Peace By Rabbi Jonathan Muskat

Imagine if we fully appreciated that peace is not as elusive as we think. On Tuesday, Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, well-known journalist and Rebbetzin in Manhattan, tweeted, “Can finally share that my in-laws, Moscow Chief Rabbi @PinchasRabbi & Rebbetzin Dara Goldschmidt, have been put under pressure by authorities to publicly support the ‘special operation’ in Ukraine – and refused.” Her next tweet was, “They flew to Hungary two weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are now in exile from the community they loved, built & raised their children in, over 33 years – though he was re-elected today by the MEPO community.”

Apparently, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Moscow’s chief rabbi since 1993, left Russia two weeks after Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine to raise funds for refugees in Eastern Europe and has now been elected to serve as Moscow’s chief rabbi for another seven years, but now he is working from exile in Israel. There were reports of government pressure to replace Rabbi Goldschmidt in the rabbinic elections, but those efforts failed.

Both the Russian Orthodox Church and heads of Russian Muslim groups have endorsed Putin’s campaign in Ukraine, but Rabbi Goldschmidt refused to do so, and it has forced him to be exiled from a community that he has led for almost thirty years. When I read the story of Rabbi Goldschmidt, my heart goes out to him and to his congregants who so desperately miss him and need him. I am also truly inspired by someone who remained faithful to his values and principles and faithful to God even when it meant that He had to leave his beloved home. He is a fulfillment of a pasuk in this week’s parsha, when the Torah states the role of the children of Kehat is, “bakatef yisa’u,” that they would carry by their shoulder, meaning, according to Rashi, that their job was to carry the shulchan, the aron and the other keilim of the mishkan on their shoulder. However, the Gemara in Masechet Arachin (11a) understands the term of “yis’u” to mean singing and this is the source that one of the roles of the Levi is to sing. Perhaps the juxtaposition of these two responsibilities of the Levi – “bakatef” – to carry heavy burdens and “yis’u” – to sing, highlights the dual role of the Levi, to carry the heavy burdens and to sing, and to do both with a sense of mission and dedication. We do both the easy work and the difficult work of our Divine service with complete commitment.

At this time, we offer Rabbi Goldschmidt a blessing of peace. At the same time, I think that he has taught us all about the blessing of peace. The end of the birkat kohanim, the priestly blessing that we read in this week’s parsha, states, “Yisa Hashem panav eilecha v’yasem lecha shalom,” or “may God bestow His favor upon us and grant us peace.” On one level, it is a prayer for the absence of harm, that we should be able to live in our homes and be allowed basic freedoms like freedom of speech and free exercise of religion, without any external threat. But maybe the blessing of peace is something that is much more profound.

Rabbi Lamm once spoke about this blessing and he cited a debate that is quoted in the Sifre. Rabbi Hanina Sgan HaKohanim explains that the “shalom” here, the peace here, refers to “shalom b’veitecha” – peace in your house, domestic peace. Rabbi Natan disagrees and says that this refers to “shalom malchut Beit David” - peace of the kingdom of David. Rabbi Hanina focuses on peace in the home and Rabbi Natan focuses on political peace. Rabbi Lamm asked a very basic question. Why is it Rabbi Chanina Sgan HaKohanim who interprets peace here to refer to peace in the home? Isn’t he the one who famously said in Pirkei Avot, “Hevay mitpallel bishlomah shel malchut” – that we should pray for peace in the realm, political peace, because “ilmaley mora’ah ish et rai’aihu chayim b’la’o” – that without fear of authority people would swallow each other up alive? Why, then, does he interpret “v’yasem lecha shalom” as domestic tranquility and not political national peace?

Rabbi Lamm answered that Rabbi Chanina Sgan Hakohanim is telling us that while we must pray for peace and perhaps the messianic utopian ideal of "v’gar z’ev im keves" – that the wolf shall lie with the lamb, we must bear no illusions. It might not happen right away. We must continue to pray for national peace and world peace. However, until we achieve that goal, we can try to achieve the priestly blessing of “v’yasem lecha shalom,” of granting us peace. What type of peace? Shalom b’veitecha – peace in our homes. That is something that we can control. Peace with our family. Until we achieve the larger goal of national and world peace that may be beyond our control, let’s try to achieve peace that is within our control. As such, when we talk about peace, we affirm the value of peace in our homes, that even if the world around us is threatening us from the outside, we achieve “shalom b’veitecha” internally in our homes, with our families.

But it goes even deeper than that. Before the birkat kohanim, the Torah addresses four different situations that can happen within the context of everyday life. The first situation deals with spiritual disruption. A person is tamei so he is forced to leave the camp. The second situation deals with disruption of the social fabric through theft and dishonesty. An individual stole and may have lied about it. The next situation deals with the sotah, disruption in the structure of the family, suspected infidelity with no concrete proof. The final situation preceding birkat kohanim deals with a nazir, an individual who may cause both spiritual and social disruption by taking upon himself certain restrictions above what is legally required, thereby separating from the community. Each of these four individuals, the person who is tamei, the person who is accused of theft, the woman who is accused of infidelity and the nazir, is on the margins of society, and this is our community! Our community is comprised of people who may not fit in completely. Sometimes we don’t fit in because of something that we did and something we don’t fit in due to no fault of our own and we wonder why did this happen to us? This doesn’t make sense! It’s not fair! In this instance, we are asking for a different type of peace.

In his Sefer Emunah u’bitachon, the Chazon Ish explains that we sometimes can have a misconception as to what bitachon, or faith, in Hashem means. Some people think that bitachon means that we believe that a good outcome is in store for us in the future, but that is not correct. Bitachon means that we believe that nothing happens by chance and that everything that occurs is the result of the will of God. When we say “yisa Hashem panav eilecha v’yasem lecha shalom,” we express faith in God that He has a plan. We don’t always understand it, but we have faith that, yes, at some point in the future, “v’yasem lecha shalom.” Here, peace is an expression of trust in God.

The Sfat Emet explains the phrase of yisa Hashem panav eilecha not as “may God turn His panim – His countenance to you;” rather, this phrase means “May God awaken the penimiyut” – the Divine spark, inside each one of us so that we will achieve a sense of peace. I think that this is the real meaning of the pasuk in Mishlei (3:17) that “deracheha darchei no’am” – the paths of the Torah are pleasant paths, “v’chol netivoteha shalom” – and all its ways are peace. The Torah guides us to achieve an internal peace. This peace is a peace of balance, of confidence, of self-esteem, of inner peace.

We pray for peace so that those who wish to do us harm will lay down their weapons and allow us to live in our homes with our basic rights and liberties. We pray for all Ukranian refugees to return to their homeland and we pray for Rabbi Goldschmidt to be reunited with his beloved community in Moscow. We also are inspired by Rabbi Goldschmidt’s steadfast commitment to his community even in his exile, for teaching us that ultimately, the peace that we all yearn for is much deeper than the absence of harm. We yearn for “shalom b’veitecha,” domestic peace. We yearn for God to awaken our panim, our Divine spark so that we can achieve inner peace.

Imagine if we fully appreciated that peace is not as elusive as we think. Perhaps the first type of peace, the absence of harm, is beyond our control and sometimes almost miraculous to achieve, but domestic tranquility and a sense of internal balance is well within our control. The Dalai Lama said, “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” We just need to work at it, work on not letting the anxieties of life disturb what is most important to us, which is our family, and we need to work on our relationship with God. If we do work at it, then even when we find ourselves in exile or just struggling to get by because of health, financial, social or other issues, even in these situations, we can still find “shalom" in our lives.