self organizing systems and world peace

[Jeff Aitken]

At 10:17 AM -0500 1/29/02, Douglas D. Germann, Sr. wrote:

>I remember reading one time that peace (shalom, I think) in the ancient
>Hebrew language connoted not just lack of violence but wholeness,
>fruitfulness, abundance. So that when one greeted another wishing them
>peace, it meant "I wish you have fullness of all things good and fruitful."

I think that's pretty accurate, Doug.

Shalom, like the word for "peace" in other indigenous languages, points
toward the holistic experience of harmony and fullness - "the still,
electrifying awareness one experiences in the deep woods", as my Oneida
teacher puts it. Indigenous sciences are precise methods to return to that
balance, primarily by continually completing our relationships with our
relations, the living universe.

(Thus, I examine OST's connections with indigenous sciences in my endless
dissertation.)

Here's a bit of research on shalom. I think there are analogous terms in
every old language. -- Jeff


Is the word "shalom" in Hebrew analogous with other indigenous terms for
balance, or great peace - cf "skanagoah" (Oneida) "hozho" (Dine) "heill"
(Germanic)?

I found this in the commentary on Torah by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch
(1867). The chapter of the portion (Vayikra 3) is about the "meal of peace"
offering at the Temple. The hebrew words are shalem, shalom, and sh'lamim;
three forms of the root letters shin, lamed, mem. Apologies for the
masculine gender form.

"Shalem implies a state of completedness, of perfection. When used with
reference to a human being it denotes a state in which the person does not
feel a gap in any aspect of his life; he feels that he lacks for nothing.
Thus, shalem is a relative concept; primarily, it describes an object in
relation to its parts, and a person in relation to the circumstances and
surroundings in which he lives...

Shalom is that state of affairs in which no component of a person or thing
detracts from any of the others but in which, rather, each component is
complemented in and through all of the others...shalom is not mere
superficial coexistence but an organic agreement and interaction among all
parts of the whole. Thus, sh'lamim are offerings that emanate from the
feeling that one is shalem [in a state of peace]...

Sh'lamim epitomize the Jewish philosophy of life. Not grief but joy is to
form the eternal bridge to G-d; the highest form of Divine service is to
enjoy one's existence on earth before the countenance of G-d. To seek G-d
even if, and precisely because one does not seek any particular favors from
[G-d], not even to give thanks to [G-d] for some extraordinary good fortune
- this is the concept on which the sh'lamim offerings are based."

-
Jeff Aitken
(01) 707-769-8155
Sonoma County,  CA

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