David Jaradeh
Dr.Hall
October 28,2018
English essay
Friday and Saturday (shabbat) in the jewish religion are considered the holy days of the week. On friday night at sundown we go to shul (synagogue) and pray. The men in the shul are wearing suits and the women would wear modest clothes such as dresses and skirts that cover up their knees and elbows in terms for modesty. During the holy shabbat in the synagogue the men and women would sit separately from each other. For example: the men would be on the ground level of the synagogue, and the women would be sitting on the balcony on top praying to gd for returning our souls back to our bodies and being able to live another day just like the day before.
When we pray there would be a rabbi sitting in front of the whole shul and there would also be a hazan of the shul which would sing the prayers in the center of the shul and everybody would follow his lead meanwhile praying. Us men go to the synagogue every friday night before eating dinner with our families and also go on saturday mornings and come back saturday afternoon to pray. During shabbat we do not drive, use our cellular devices, work out, work, and do not do anything that requires work. This holy weekend is a day of rest for us jews that we cannot do anything but enjoy that god gave us this day to rest up and take advantage of it. When women show up on saturday mornings there view from the balcony looking down their point eye would be a sea of heads with men wearing yamakas. Yamakas is what a man wears on his everyday life and especially to shul which represents that god is above you.
After sundown prayers are over, people go home for their shabbat meal. As they leave shul to go home we say to each other the words “shabbat shalom”. Shalom means peace used as a greeting and farewell. My family uses the word shalom as a greeting because it is common. Nowadays people use it greeting for a father, mother, sister, brother, cousins, friends, and strangers just to say hello. The word shalom also means peace and the word is originated during biblical times.
“ Shalom” is taken from the depth meaning called shalam, which means: “ to be safe in mind, body or estate,” or even “ peace upon you”. It shows us jews to encourage a person to give back, that you should always have a peace in the mind, to never ever be stressed, in the body and to have a good calm estate. “ peace upon you” states that you should never have conflict with anybody or anyone in any nation and just always have peace within yourself and always be calm.
Our land Israel is located in the middle east, that is surrounded by all arab countries. We usto be in war with Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. But we finally made shalom (peace) with these countries and have no more battles against each other. We have a bible called the Torah. The talmud explains, “The entire torah is for the sake of the ways of shalom” which states: that our bible is for the sake of the good and just to make peace in every way and everyday and not have conflict with anyone or anything.
When we get into arguments with people, family, friends, and acquaintances we often say rude comments or even contempt people without actually even meaning it. People sometimes go back and forth to each other without realizing that it is a waste of time. In the end of the arguments people use the word shalom peace to become friendly and take back all the rude comments they said. The shalom in this part shows us that we can make peace in any way regarding any argument someone makes. Us people should always use shalom in our daily lives just to remember that we should never hold grudge on somebody, just make peace and go on with our daily lives. Shalom is a peace, a greeting, the name of g-d , is a name, and is a key to life. The mishnah says: G-d did not find a vessel that could hold blessing other than shalom (peace).
Sometimes when we drive somewhere really far or even take a flight somewhere we say this prayer called birkat haderech which we pray that we get to our destination safely without any harm done to us. People say in hebrew to the other people traveling saying in hebrew “ Tesa beshalom ve tich or veshalom” which means go in peace and come back in peace and safely. This word is really serious in our daily lives, we just want to live peacefully without any harm done to us or anybody in the world. True shalom only comes from g-d everything that happens to us on our daily lives whether it is peace or not we hope that g-ds blesses us everyday to get to go through our daily routine in peace and not have any complications.
Shalom expresses our wellbeing. In Israel a teacher would walk into a classroom and say “Shalom Ma shlomcha or Shalom kita” which means Hi how are you and hi class. There is many ways to say it. In my community people just say it just to say hello. In our torah the word is mostly common with state of affairs, one of well being, tranquility, prosperity, security, circumstances, unblemished by any sort of defect, and as well as a blessing. Its significance is thus not limited to the political domain, to the absence of war and enmity or to the social absence of quarrel and strife.
Shalom in my community and to the jews is a very powerful and strong word in our daily lives. We use it for hello and for protection.The Hebrew word for peace, shalom (שׁלום) is the key and we will always follow it for as long as this generation continues it will always be passed down.
