It is fitting that the last blessing of the Amidah (whether on weekdays, number 19, or on Shabbat , number 7) is a prayer for peace. But what is peace, exactly?
There is a negative definition of peace: peace is the absence of war. But this is not the Jewish definition. The negative definition is based on power—there was peace in the former Yugoslavia because there was a government brutal enough to repress everyone. The same could be said of the current war in Ukraine: Russia is seeking to impose the same kind of peace that currently exists in, for example, Chechnya (where a quarter of a million civilians were killed by Russian forces). This is “peace” as described by Calgacus, Caledonian rebel against the Romans, as quoted by Roman historian Tacitus: “They make a desert and call it peace.”
We, on the other hand, were never satisfied with the mere absence of war, even if a cessation of hostilities is a blessing of sorts. We want a real peace, a positive peace: “Grant peace, goodness and blessing, grace, kindness, and mercy to us and to all of Israel, your People.” A real peace means a world transformed, not terrorized; a world of sympathy, not suppression. While it is certainly true that good fences make good neighbors, passing gifts over the fences makes better neighbors.
The tension between negative and positive peace is one of the great animating tensions of the modern Jewish world. Think of the separation barrier between Israel and the “West Bank.” Of course we have to celebrate the fact that the barrier has dramatically reduced terrorist attacks. In 2002 there were 55 attacks and 220 Israeli victims, and barrier construction began. In 2007 there was one attack, and 3 Israeli victims. But is that the kind of peace we want? We’ll take it, of course, it’s infinitely better than the alternative, but is that all we should strive for?
Of course not. We want a humane peace, a shared peace, where people offer the best of themselves—a peace of “grace, kindness, and mercy.” And this is true not only in the realm of geopolitics. This is what we want for our society, our community, our workplace, our families, and our very selves. Some may look at that as wishful thinking. They are right. But the purpose of prayer is to transform wishes into realities—or at least move the needle in the right direction.