The Midrash notes that the Korban Shelamim, Peace-offering, comes at the end of the sequence of korbanos. This implies that peace is of supreme significance, for it reconnects man with his Maker, with his fellow-man, and with his own conscience. Horav Eliyahu Munk, zl, explains that peace is neither a simple fact of creation nor a part of natural law. It is not a pacifistic doctrine to which one must adhere even at the expense of sacred principles. Peace is not, as some would suggest, a compromise of values and ideals; rather, it is a sense of harmony in which everything fits together. Peace requires constant effort to overcome the challenges and conflicts that would undermine universal harmony. Shalom, peace, therefore, appears at the close of our most significant prayers: Shemoneh Esrai, Kaddish, Bircas Hamazone.
In Meseches Derech Eretz Zuta, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi contends that peace is like leavening in the dough; it gives rise to movement and progress within society when society is in such discord that it cannot function. We have only to study history to see the veracity of this statement evidenced.
