Parsha in Four by E ytan Kobre

Betw ee n the Lines

No Justice, No Peace

By Eytan Kobre

Peace without truth is a false peace.

- R’ Menachem Mendel of Kotzk

From first century Roman Emperor Hadrian to U.S. President

Ronald Reagan, formidable world leaders for thousands of years have adhered to an ideology of “peace through strength.” Reagan put it this way: “We know that peace is the condition under which mankind was meant to flourish. Yet peace does not exist of its own will. It depends on us, on our courage to build it and guard it and pass it on to future generations.” Or, in Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of jus tice.”

Peace cannot be attained at the expense of truth, justice, and values.

The Blasphemer was the son of an Egyptian man and a Jewish woman, Shlomis bas Divri – the only Jewish woman to be with an Egyptian man during the Jewish people’s exile in Egypt (Vayikra 24:10-11). She was known as Shlomis because she chirped incessantly, “Peace upon you, peace upon you,” and she sought peace with anyone and everyone (Rashi, Vayikra 24:11).

The root of Shlomis’s errant ways, explains R’ Shalom Schwadron, was her misplaced relationship with peace. She believed that peace must be pursued and attained at all costs – even if it meant compromising her Jewish identity and Jewish ideals of modesty. To her, the stark differences between the Jewish people (who maintained their identity as such) and their degenerate Egyptian oppressors was something to be downplayed. And so, she developed a misguided philosophy of peace and love for all, which started with her constant calls of “peace upon you, peace upon you” and ended with a wayward son.

Peace is, to be sure, a coveted and core Torah value. “The whole Torah is for the sake of promoting peace” (Gittin 59b; Mishlei 3:17). Even if they commit idolatry, the Jewish people will be spared calamity if there is peace amongst them (Bereishis Rabba 38:6). Making peace between others is one of the few enumerated deeds for which “the fruits a person enjoys in this world, while the principal remains intact for him in the hereafter” (Pei’ah 1:1). Not only is shalom (peace) one of G-d’s names (Vayikra Rabba 9:9), G-d even permitted His name to be erased for the sake of making peace between husband and wife (Sukka 53b). “Peace is the only vessel G-d could find to adequately hold blessing for the Jewish people” (Uktzin 3:11). Peace encompasses all blessing (Vayikra Rabba 9:9). The exhortations to make peace seem limitless.

But even peace has its limits – it must always yield to truth and justice and Torah principles. “Where there is justice, there is truth; where there is truth, there is peace” (Yerushalmi, Ta’anis 4:2). The only true peace is one accompanied by rebuke (Bereishis Rabba 54:3). Rather than creating animosity, one who adjudicates a truthful judgment makes peace (Mechilta of R’ Shimon bar Yochai, Yisro 19). “Wherever there is justice, there is peace; wherever there is peace, there is justice” (Derech Eretz Zuta, Perek HaShalom). For truth, justice, and peace are all principles on which the world endures – none may be compromised to attain the others (Avos 1:18).

Perhaps that is the reason that specifically “scholars increase peace in the world” (Berachos 64a). Only our scholars, explains the Alter of Kelm, are perfectly attuned to the truth and justice demanded by the Torah, so only they can walk the delicate balance between a false peace and a genuine one rooted in the Torah’s absolute truths.

In directing Moshe to “say to the Kohanim, the sons of Aharon, and say to them that they should not become impure to any person in the nation” (Vayikra 21:1), G-d stressed that these were “sons of Aharon” (even though they were the only Kohanim at the time) to emphasize that while they should draw on their father Aharon’s core trait – peace – they must never do so in such a manner as to “become impure [in the spiritual sense] to any person” (Chasam Sofer, Vayikra 21:1). Peace should be pursued vigorously, but never by compromising truth, justice, or values.

Indeed, Hillel taught as much: “Be from the disciples of Aharon; loving peace and pursuing peace; loving the creations and bringing them close to the Torah” (Avos 1:12). Certainly, strive to be a disciple of Aharon – “love peace and pursue peace,” even “love the creations” to attain it – but only by bringing others close to the Torah, not vice versa (Be’er Avos 1:12; Chaim Sheyesh Bahem, Avos 1:12).

Pinchas, Aharon’s grandson, embodied the delicate balance between pursuing peace and insisting on truth and justice. When some of the Jewish people committed acts of immorality and idolatry, G-d sent a plague that killed 24,00 people until Pinchas killed two offenders, Zimri and Kozbi, ending the catastrophe swiftly (Bamidbar 25:1-10).

But even after committing such violence, the Kotzker Rebbe explains, Pinchas was given a “Covenant of Peace” (Bamidbar 25:12) – peace of all things – because peace cannot be attained by compromising one’s values. While society tends to regard

peace as concession to those who are more powerful, true and lasting peace is attained only through a measured battle for one’s values (Keraina D’Igrasa 2:312). So rather than being seen as an act of hostility, Pinchas’s bold move actually restored peace to the Jewish people (Zevachim 101b). And he was granted a “Covenant of Peace” precisely because he was not afraid to fight for truth and justice and Torah values.

The Kotzker Rebbe didn’t just preach this point; he lived it. Although he and R’ Yitzchak of Vorke were close friends, their respective followers decidedly were not. It once happened that the Kotzker Rebbe and the Vorker Rebbe met, when the latter announced, “I have great news. Our respective followers have made peace with each other.”

The Kotzker Rebbe was not pleased. “If so,” he replied, “then the powers of falsehood have prevailed.” And, seeing the Vorker Rebbe’s obvi

ous displeasure with such a pessimistic view, the Kotzker Rebbe explained.

“We are taught that a dispute that is for the sake of heaven will yield permanent results (Avos 5:17), because the search for truth lies at the one another, they likely compromised their standards and have made peace with falsehood.”

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, fighting forcefully and valiantly to stem the tide of the Reform movement

Peace should be pursued vigorously, but never by compromising truth, justice, or values.

core of such a dispute. But without a sincere search for truth, peace occurs by default. So while it is true that our respective followers had not been in harmony, that was because each side was invested in the sincere pursuit of truth. If they have made peace with in 19th century Germany, always rebuffed calls to make peace with the “enlightened” reformers. The words emes (truth) and shalom (peace), he observed, are nearly always written in Tanach in that order – first emes, and only then shalom (see e.g. Zecharya

8:16; Zecharya 8:19; Tehillim 85:11) – “for peace is not a father of truth; peace is a child of truth...inalienable truth can never be sold, not even for the price of peace…” (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Klugman at pg. 314; see also Responsa of Maharam Shick, Yoreh Dei’ah 333; Kovetz Ma’amarim, Galus U’Geula No. 26).

Because peace – a true and lasting peace – is not made when one must say “yes”; peace is made when one has the moral courage and conviction to say, “no.”

This article should merit the refuah sheleima of Avraham ben Fraida, a consummate man of peace.

Eytan Kobre is a writer, speaker, and attorney living in Kew Gardens Hills. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? E-mail eakobre@outlook.com.