The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, is derived from a root denoting wholeness or completeness, and its frame of reference throughout Jewish literature is bound up with the notion of Shelemut, perfection.  

In the Bible, the word shalom is most commonly used to refer to a state of affairs, one of harmony, tranquillity, and prosperity. Shalom is a blessing, a manifestation of Divine grace. Of course, it also denotes the opposite of war, for the absence of war, too, suggests an orderly and tranquil state of affairs.

In Rabbinic texts, shalom primarily signifies a value, an ethical category; the overcoming of strife and enmity in family, communal, and national life, and the prevention of war. It is still depicted as a manifestation of Divine grace, but in many sayings it appears in a normative context: the pursuit of peace is the obligation of the individual and the goal of various social regulations and structures.

The rabbis went to great lengths in their praise of peace, to the point of viewing it as a meta-value, the summit of all other values. Peace is the ultimate purpose of the Torah, and the essence of prophecy and redemption; Shalom is the name of God, the name of Israel, and the name of the Messiah.

Nevertheless, the sages discuss the relationship between peace and other values, such as justice and truth. One view is that peace, justice and truth are fully harmonious and complementary. However, there are also discussions concerning which value prevails in cases of conflict. In this context, even where peace is given priority it is viewed as an individual, partial value that must compete with other values. Thus, one may lie for the sake of peace. Furthermore, according to R. Joshua ben Korcha, strict justice is incompatible with peace; a judge should therefore temper justice with peace, and rule for compromise (the opposing view is “let justice pierce the mountain,” that is, justice at all costs).

The unique development of the philosophical and mystical literature in the Middle Ages is reflected in their portrayal of peace as an ontological principle. Peace was elevated to the level of the cosmic, the metaphysical, the Divine. Peace is the foundation of all being, the principle that harmonises contending forces within each individual object, and reconciles the separate elements of nature as a whole. Ultimately, peace is the embodiment of the Divine immanence in the world: “God is the ultimate form of the world, and in this He comprehends all and joins and unifies all, and this is the very essence of peace”.

Peace and War. Jewish sources, from the Bible onward, acknowledge war as a given of human existence. It is a reflection of the real, yet fallen, human condition in history, as opposed to the meta-historical era of the End of Days. War reflects the actual situation of man, but not his destiny.

The post-biblical discussion of this question was greatly influenced by the reality of Jewish powerlessness. Neither war nor peace really stood as concrete options for the Jewish people. Only the wars of the Gentiles belonged to historical reality; the ancient wars of Israel were a matter more for theology than for politics. The Jew waged war against the evil inclination far more than he did against any historical foe. Peace, too, was discussed primarily from a utopian perspective, in light of the prophetic vision of eternal peace.

In this context, three different models of peace were put forward. According to the first model, peace will eventually be achieved by a transformation of the consciousness of the individual. Thus, Maimonides viewed intellectual perfection as the guarantor of peace. The apprehension of truth, the universal knowledge of God, will displace man's attachment to illusory goods and destructive impulses, and completely eliminate the irrational factors that cause conflicts and wars. According to the 11th 12th century Spanish thinker Abraham bar Chiya, on the other hand, man's destructive impulses are to be overcome not by an intellectual change but by an emotional one, namely, by a sense of intimacy and love that will grow among men in the messianic era, once they have all chosen to adopt the same faith and path.