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Could the Torah be an instrument of peace ?

Let us listen to the definition that the Torah gives us about itself, through the mouth of King Solomon in the Book of Proverbs (Prov 3:17) :
“His ways are pleasant paths, and all his ways lead to peace.” Could the Torah be, simply and profoundly this: an instrument of peace. A peace that starts from the inside, through the instrument of memory, and expresses itself in the outside world by the recognition of the place of the other, and its importance? To understand our question, we must introduce several notions:
The stories of the Torah are not written to be understood in the context of the past, but in the context of the present.
The memorial markers of the stories of the Torah, are carefully chosen. Their chronology of meaning is more important than the story told for neutral values ​​of reconstitution of the past.
We want, we must consciously, learn from this series of stories. These memorial markers show us precise perspectives. In other words, the stories that the Torah tells us are not there at random. The Torah cultivates and preserves specific perspectives, which identify us with a trajectory of meaning, of our place and our role in the world to live in peace.
Cultivating familiarity with these different perspectives, as a memory of the historical stages of the same nation, gives rise to the possibility of identifying the other with oneself, and creating favorable conditions for peace.
If, by seeing ourselves in the mirror of our “history,” we are able to include the other in our gaze, the seed of peace is already planted, and ready to ripen.
In the memory of the Torah, certain perspectives emerge.
-The perspective of nomadic matriarchal societies, based around the family, by the example of the memory marker of the story of Sarah and Abraham. This narrative leads us to the admiring respect of these communities in perpetual motion, and to become familiar with the idea that it is possible to communicate with Gd, to have access to the highest sense of life, from a nomadic and matriarchal life.
By taking Sarah and Abraham as the primordial memory marker, respect and the possibility of dialogue of exchange and love with nomadic matriarchal societies, exists potentially in itself.
We learn the same thing from the narrative of the perspective of the tribal nations, by the example of the story of the 12 tribes. It is a founding narrative that opens the eyes to the perspective of the life of pastoral matriarchal nations, with Jacob and the creation of his flock.
The name Israel is associated with this memorial marker. They are tribes of the same father, but divided and identified according to founding mothers. This lasts until the time of the Judges.
The entry into the patriarchal society as exile, and the return to the matriarchal mode as liberation, is also a fundamental concept.
The memory marker of the period of confrontation between the values ​​of a nomadic matriarchal society (where the children belong to the mother) and the patriarchal environment of Egypt (where the children belong to the state) is very important and say again. Moses is found and educated by a woman, the “daughter” of Pharaoh.
-The code of preservation of this memory in all its details of transmission (the Law) is guaranteed by the maternal lineage, which preserves the tribal distinction during the period of the 12 tribes and their Judges, period where the women are fully active in the function of prophets, or even warriors, like Yael and Deborah.
-The return from exile, but this time as a societal choice by oneself, or the need to make a balance with the patriarchal environment (the Hebrews saying to Samuel “Give us a King like the other nations”) in the episode from the end of the Book of Judges.
The remonstrance made to the Hebrews during this episode is of a prophetic nature: it describes the condition of matriarchal societies in the hands of patriarchal systems in detail, and calls for the need for constant vigilance.
-The life of the city, Jerusalem, and the resulting corruption.
-The call to vigilance made by the prophets is constant until the end of the Tanakh.
Humanity lives in all these different stages at the same time, in the present, in different parts of our world, from the nomadic matriarchal mode, through tribal or national definitions, to the spheres of the patriarchal state cities.
The Torah, asking us to identify these stages with a shared memory, allows us to have access to the love of humanity, in its various aspects, and it is this inclusion, this recognition of the other in ourselves, which allows us to live in peace.
By constantly “reminding myself” that I am both a matriarchal nomad (Abraham’s child), a matriarchal tribal (Judah Levi etc. to Ezra), a national (the Maccabees), and even a state of resistance in the patriarchal world ( the wars of Rome, Titus, Lucius, the Talmud, the Crusades, until the 20th century) I can manage to integrate the experience of those who live in all these contexts, in our world as real perspectives.
Having both the memory of being free and in exile, I can find the right balance, which allows all these aspects to live in myself, and project it around me by understanding the perspective of each context. Perhaps the real definition or translation of Peace Shalom is to be complete Tamim, Shalem, the world being included, and not excluded, from the definition.
So it is by including the other in ourselves that we become complete.
What better way is there to include the other than to give it an important and significant part in our memory?
And what better way to use memory, than to make it an instrument of love?
Derakheha Darkey Noam Vekhol Netivoteha Shalom

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