Shalom: The Delicate Butterfly of Peace

by Rabbi Debra Smith

I am blessed to participate in an ongoing weekly Jewish journaling class offered by The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County, NJ.
The prompt that we received in my class last week was to write about our favorite Jewish word.  How does one choose their favorite word in any language? It is not an easy task.

Surprisingly, this choice required no pondering for me. The word “shalom” is first and foremost in my thoughts right now.

Shalom is such a descriptive word: hello, goodbye, peace. But shalom also means completeness or wholeness  (shleimut).

Shalom: A state of being so fragile. It comes and goes. It beats its wings like a delicate butterfly. It alights here and there and flits from place to place,
never resting long in any one place.

But when it visits even for a little while, it brings a state of completeness and wholeness with it to those fortunate to be visited by this delicate butterfly of peace.

Shalom: The delicate butterfly of peace and wholeness.

Shalom: A yearned-for place in my soul. Shalom.