The Greeting Of Peace

The Hebrew word for peace is "shalom." And this is the way that we greet people. We greet people with "shalom," when we encounter them. And we bless people with "shalom," when we say goodbye. And the traditional greeting when seeing someone for the first time or when seeing someone you haven't seen in a long time is, "Shalom Aleichem," which means "peace unto you."

The word shalom means both peace and harmony. And it is the same word as sholaim, which means wholeness. When there is an atmosphere of harmony, we feel whole and complete. And when a person feels whole, he is more likely to be at peace with himself and with others.

We bless people with peace. They should have inner peace and peace with others. When you have harmony, you function at your best. When two people work in harmony, they bring out the best in each other. And when there is harmony in an organization or a community, everyone brings out the best in each other. And we are all very different at our best than we are at our worst.