I sit at my home-office, the olive tree peeps at my window, the birds are chirping, the sky is blue, and I read on the internet that Israel is rated as the fifth less-peaceful country in the world at the Global Peace Index (GPI) of 2008.

The Peace Index was translated on the Israeli news  as       ”מַדַּד הַשַּׁלְוָה“. When I hear the word “peace” I think about שָׁלוֹם  (shalom) – the positive relationships among people and among countries. The word שַׁלְוָה (shalva) refers more to a state of mind, or general feeling of tranquility and calmness.

Yesterday, my 9-year-old son told me that they were discussing the words “war”   (מִלְחָמָה) and “peace” (שָׁלוֹם) at school. He said that it was very easy for his classmates to define war: “you know, shooting, fighting, and so on”. He further told me that the children couldn’t come up with a definition for peace. They knew the symbols of a white dove and a branch of olive, but couldn’t explain what it was. Finally, he said, after much discussion, they agreed that peace is simply no-war.

I look at the Global Peace Index and try to see what the indicators that define Peace are. It includes the level of distrust at other citizens, ease of access to weapon, level of violence crime, military capability, and so on. In other words, it is defined by the violence potential and violence itself. Just like my son’s class had defined it.

And how does the Online Dictionary Babylon define “peace”? – State of not being at war; silence, quietness; tranquility. And in Hebrew:

שָׁלוֹם – אִי-לוֹחֲמָהּ , לֹא מִלְחָמָה, שֶׁקֶט בַּגְּבוּלוֹת, יַחֲסֵי יְדִידוּת, שַׁלְוָה , מְנוּחָה, שֶׁקֶט

But the Hebrew language gives the word שָׁלוֹם another definition: this is the common greeting of hello and goodbye. We greet each other with peace and remind ourselves where we are heading all the time.
Iceland (אִיסְלַנְד) was ranked as the most peaceful state on the GPI. I wonder how third graders define peace there. I have a naïve wish for the generations to come to have enough peace within themselves and around them, so they will be able to fully experience peace, and hence, it would be very easy for them to define and describe it.

How would you or your children define peace? Please, share it with us.