We use the word peace all the time, as if we know what it means. I’m not so sure. In truth, I have come to believe that no one knows what it means.

According to a 2003 New York Times article, of the past 3,400 years humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just eight percent of recorded history (the Times doesn’t report when these years occurred). Other sources say there never has been peace, because so-called times of peace — when the world happened to be free of active war — were dominated by powerful nations using force to rule over other nations.

Why do we throw this word around so often? And what is it that we are hoping for? Justice for all? Equity and freedom? Global human rights? Rampant kindness? 

I think what worries me most is that sometimes, perhaps all too often, when people demand peace they want it only for some, and not for all. I want Israelis to have peace, my Starbucks barista wants Palestinians to have peace, and neither of us can see a way forward that guarantees peace for everyone. 

This week’s Torah portion includes the famous passage in the book of Numbers when God tells Aaron to bless the Children of Israel. It reads:

Thus shall you bless the people of Israel. Say to them:

“God bless you and protect you!

God deal kindly and graciously with you! 

God bestow favor upon you and grant you peace!”

Thus [Aaron and his sons] shall link My name with the people of Israel, and I will bless them. 

It occurs to me to wonder: Who’s doing the blessing? Aaron or God? But maybe I’m reading too much into this. Maybe it’s just a way to tell us humans that we are blessed. Whatever that means.

There is a grocery chain here in Sarasota where, as you pay the cashier and leave, the cashiers all say, “have a blessed day.” I’m not sure what that means either.

According to the dictionary, when we bless each other we “confer or invoke Divine favor.” As a rabbi, I was given the right — and responsibility— to confer blessings. The cashiers? They and their company have taken it upon themselves to give out blessings, freely and openly, to all who cross their path.

Maybe that is the road to peace. Rather than argue about what peace means, we should simply wish it for each other, and express that wish out loud, for all to hear.

The details can come later. Perhaps by the mere expression of a desire for someone else to feel blessed we can begin to make cracks in the armor that keeps peace at bay.

As I write this and wonder if I have strayed too far into idealistic territory (something I am inclined to do) I am reminded of Theodore Herzl’s famous declaration, Im tirzu ayn zo aggadah. It means, “If you will it, it is no dream.”

May it be so.