According to the second view, the people of the world will be made to live in peace by being brought together under a single universal framework. Thus, David Kimchi and Isaac Arama portrayed the Messiah as a supreme, utopian judge who would make peace between the nations. This vision speaks not of a human society that has risen above all striving and conflict, but rather of a kind of international court whose authority and righteousness are accepted by all. Other thinkers envisioned a kind of Pax Judaica, a single, central government in Zion to which all peoples would be subject.

A third view anticipated the achievement of peace by an internal reformation of the socio-political order. In the teachings of Isaac Abravanel, war was described as a consequence of man's historical and cultural fall, a fall that is embodied pre-eminently in man's technological civilisation, and political tradition and institutions.

 

Ultimate redemption is destined to bring about the demise of materialistic civilisation and the disappearance of political structures and boundaries.

In the teachings of Isaac Arama, on the other hand, peace and war are discussed in relation to the presently operative political and judicial order. The closer the laws and the political order come to satisfying the natural, universal sense of justice, the more peace will tend to overcome war.

The emphasis on peace in Judaism is shown by the fact that all major prayers (including the Amidah, the Kaddish, and the Grace After Meals) conclude with a prayer for peace, as does the Priestly Blessing.

 

PEACE IN THE JEWISH TRADITION

Peace is the greatest of all blessings.

 

The whole Torah exists solely for the sake of peace.

 

Great is peace, for it is to the world what leaven is to dough. If God had not placed peace in the world, all mankind would have been destroyed by the sword and wild beasts.

 

Be among the disciples of Aaron: Love peace and strive for peace, love people and acquaint them with the teachings of the Torah.

 

R. Simeon ben Gamliel said, “The world rests on three things: Justice, truth, and peace.” R. Mona said, “These three are one and the same, for if there is justice, there is truth, and if there is truth, there is peace.”

 

Peacemaking, like charity, brings benefit in this world and in the world to come.

 

Jerusalem will be rebuilt only through peace.