Shalom and welcome back to Israel with Aline! For those who follow the channel, you know that I always start my videos saying Shalom; but what does it mean? The word Shalom appears in the Bible more than two hundred times, and today we will understand the basic meaning, but also the secrets behind this word.
So if you are ready, let's get started! The most basic way to translate the word Shalom is as peace. Also, Shalom is used as a greeting in Hebrew to this day.
So when you are arriving at a friend's house or seeing someone, you can say Shalom! And also when you are leaving, you can use shalom. So super basic: Shalom can be peace, hello or goodbye.
A little bit above the basic level, they are expressions with Shalom, for example "Shalom Aleichem", which is also an expression, which appears in the Bible, which means "peace be upon you". And we can also use this expression in everyday life as well. It is a little more formal way of speaking, to come and say Shalom Aleichem.
And what is used every Saturday, the Sabbath in Hebrew is Shabbat, we use "Shabbat Shalom", "a Saturday of peace". But what is the meaning of the word Shalom in the Bible? It has a basic meaning which is peace in the sense of the absence of war.
And it is also used in the Bible. But there is another much deeper meaning in the Bible for the word Shalom. And to understand this meaning, we have to understand the root of the word Shalom.
The words in Hebrew, they have what we call "Shoresh" or root, meaning that they are the main letters inside the word. And with these main letters we form words with similar meanings. I now want to give you a different example so that you can understand what I am talking about: from now on, I'll also put a box here on the side, with the Hebrew writing and also transliterated for you to follow.
The example I want to give you is the word "Adama", Adama in Hebrew means earth, and the root is "Alef', "Dalet", "Mem", that's the root. And different words will arise from that same root. For example, the one who was created from the earth was Adam, Adam, the first man.
And you can see that they are the same letters. So Adama and Adam have the same root, and what's inside Adam, what's inside Adam is "dam" which is blood, so part of the root forms the word blood. So the earth, from the earth comes Adam, and inside Adam has the blood, and the blood is the color of Adom, also the land here in Israel in various places, it has this reddish color.
So Adom is red like Adam's blood that was created from the earth. So the roots in Hebrew they have a very strong connection, a connection of meaning. And now the question; so what is the root of the word Shalom?
And the root is "Shin", "Lamed", "Mem" which is the same word in Hebrew as Shalem, Shalem is complete. And we are going to see now a very strong connection between peace, between Shalom and Shalem; a complete thing among the fullness. The Bible tells us that King Solomon, he will bring Shalom into the Temple of Jerusalem when he finishes building the temple.
That is, he completes it. He makes the Jerusalem Temple into something complete, and so he brings Shalom to the Temple. And the Temple of Jerusalem was a gigantic structure, and very complex, with thousands of stones and thousands of pieces that had to fit perfectly.
And only when the entire Temple was complete, and all the pieces in their proper place, only then could it work. And when the pieces are in harmony, that is also another meaning for the word Shalom. So, when everything is in its place, when everything is in harmony, the place, or the person, or the situation is in Shalom.
And in what city was Solomon's Temple built? It was built here, where we are, in Jerusalem. In Hebrew there is no letter "J", nor the equivalent to the letter "J".
Every time we see a word with "J" in Portuguese, the original name in Hebrew is with Yud, so Jerusalem is actually Yerushalaim. Another example is the name John, with "J" in Portuguese, in Hebrew it is Yohanan. But let's focus on Jerusalem today, and not on John.
Jerusalem or Yerushalaim, do you see here the root of the word? Yerushalaim, the "Shin", the "Lamed", and the "Mem"? The root of the word Shalom is within the word.
We see the connection between the name of the city and the word Shalom. And "Yir" in Hebrew means city, so Jerusalem is the city of Shalom, it can be considered the city of peace, the city of fullness, the city of harmony. So Jerusalem is the city of Shalom.
As we see, with the same root. Let's go even deeper into the meaning of this word. I want to talk about an expression that I think most of you have heard, and it appears in Isaiah nine six; when Isaiah speaks of the "Prince of Peace," the Prince of Shalom.
It is written in the original in Hebrew: Sar - Shalom, first correction I want to do guys; Sar is not a prince in reality. The word "Naz Seir" is prince. The word "Sar" is minister.
By the way, the name Sarah comes from that very word, minister. But come on, the minister of peace is that person who, through his ministry, is going to bring peace. But Isaiah is probably refers to the minister of Shalom, not simply in the meaning that he is going to stop wars, but that he is going to do a much greater thing.
It is written that this minister of peace, or that this Prince of peace will bring great light, and that he will bring joy and also that wars will be stopped, that is, he speaks of the Prince of peace in a much greater way; that it is not simply a peace that will stop wars, but that he will bring harmony, a joy, a light to the world! And now that we understand all this, I want to go back to the beginning of our video, when we talked about an expression that is said "Shalom Aleichem - peace be with you. " The one who often used this expression was Jesus, for example John twenty, twenty-one: "Again Jesus said, Peace be with you!
As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. " And so, when Jesus tells them "May Shalom be with you", it's not just for them not to be conflicted, for them to be at peace in the traditional way, and yes much more than that; that they be full, that they be in harmony. That yes, they take the pieces of what is broken, of what is not complete, and work on restoration; the restoration of connection with others, of connection with God, of creating a more harmonious and more complete world.
And that is a small example of a word that can sometimes seem so simple, but the biblical meaning of it is so much greater. And so whenever I'm here, I want to wish you all Shalom, fullness, harmony, connection with others and with God, and of course traditional peace. a big kiss, and see you next time!