Ending with peace – Naso
The famous priestly blessing (yevarech’cha HaShem veyishm’recha) is from the verses of the weekly reading, Naso.
It ends, veyassem l’cha shalom – “May God look favourably upon you and grant you peace”.
The sages say (Mishnah Uktzin 3:12) that peace is the culminating blessing; when we have been given Divine protection, grace, love and spiritual uplift, what can still be lacking? Peace!
But shalom does not simply mean peace in the sense of the absence of conflict and war. Peace is sh’lemut, completeness.
When we know that everything around us is calm and working together in harmony, then we have peace.
Peace with other people? Of course. But also peace with the environment. And peace with ourselves.