Dvar Torah: Oseh Shalom and our spheres of responsibility

Written by Rabbi Josh Levy — 23 April 2021

The words of Oseh Shalom, with which we just ended the Amidah, are based on a description of God found in the Book of Job.

One of Job’s friends, Bildad the Shuchite – attempting to express the awesomeness of God’s power, to affirm divine justice to suffering Job – states, “Ham’sheil va’fachad immo, oseh shalom bimromav” – “To God belong dominion and dread, God makes peace in the highest”.

The imagery of God as ‘creator of peace in heaven’ captured the imagination of the liturgists, who brought it into our prayers – using it to end kaddish, the Amidah, birkat hamazon.
They transformed it, changing it from a description of divine power to a request.
And they extended it from its original idea, so that now it asked God as ‘creator of peace in the highest’ to extend that concern to peace for us and for all Israel too.

That is how Oseh Shalom remained, until starting in the 1960s, its vision was extended once again. God who creates peace in the heavens is now asked in communities around the world to bring peace for us and for Israel and beyond: the hope for peace extended to all the inhabitants of the world.

This widening of Oseh Shalom reflects a widening in our Jewish concern beyond the particular, a widening in our world view. When we finished our Amidah a moment ago, we stated that our concern is not narrow – it is not only about ourselves, not only about our families, our communities, but it extends beyond us too. We ask for peace beyond ourselves: kol yoshvei tevel – ‘all the inhabitants of the earth’ we sang this evening; kol ha-olam – ‘all the world’ is the phrase in our siddur.

We did so because we believe that God cares about all human beings. And so, by extension, should we.

As we begin to enjoy the experience of new freedoms, this reminder that as Jews we must look beyond ourselves is hugely important.

The opening up that we are experiencing cannot only be about haircuts and restaurant bookings, the fulfilment of our own narrow needs. We have been so good at caring about one another and those beyond us. Now is not the time to only focus inwards. Not the time to go from ‘We’ to ‘I’, from ‘Us’ to ‘Me’.

Our opening up must not be at the expense of looking up; not at the expense of our ability to look out beyond our selves, seeing the needs of others.

We must find it in ourselves to comfort those who are not yet comfortable, to worry about those who are yet to be offered a vaccine, to be a source of healing for those who are still in need.

We must find it in ourselves to care that while here, and in Israel, we may – hopefully – be moving from experiencing covid as pandemic to a new form of life with a covid that is endemic in our lives, covid as pandemic still rages elsewhere in the world, as we have seen so terribly this week in India. Our concern must still extend to kol yoshvei tevel.

There is something that I mentioned in passing which adds another flavour to Oseh shalom.
The words we quote are those of a Shuchite, a non-Israelite, a non-Jew.
To quote American rabbi Dan Ornstein, “The use of his words… reflects [a]… subtle acknowledgment that the quest for peace in heaven and on earth belongs to everyone, not only Jews.” And so, we continue to work in partnership with others for peace in the world – as we will this coming Tuesday at our pre-Iftar study evening.

‘Oseh shalom bimromav’
May the one who brings peace in the highest extend that loving care, that concern, beyond the narrow sphere of heaven, beyond us, beyond only Israel, to all the world.
And may we find it in ourselves to extend our sphere of concern beyond ourselves too.