Primo Levi, recently released from Auschwitz, recalls a savvy confidante warning him, “The war is not yet over – not for you.” Indeed, on July 4, 1946, the few remaining Jews in the Polish town of Kielce were herded together and clubbed, stoned, or stabbed to death. In 1946 as well, Jewish survivors elsewhere, barely alive from concentration-camp starvation and forced death marches, languished in Displaced Persons camps with nowhere to go. Even here, 64% of American Jews claimed personal familiarity with anti-Semitism. 1946 was not a very good year.
How amazing, then that in 1946, the leading book on the New York Times best-seller list was authored by a Rabbi from Boston, Joshua Loth Liebman, and entitled Peace of Mind.
“This is the gift that God reserves for special proteges,” Liebman wrote. “ Talent and beauty God gives to many. Wealth is commonplace, fame not rare. But peace of mind – that is the fondest sign of God’s love.”
Peace of mind is an inner virtue: not something we gain from life’s experiences, but something we take to them, to help us make it through them. Think of the biblical Aaron, who suffers the sudden death of his two oldest sons. The Torah defends the event as divine punishment for offering “alien fire,” an obscure sin that neither the Talmud nor the commentators explain very satisfactorily. I read the account as a case of “grasping at straws,” like Job’s friends who imagine all suffering must be deserved. It isn’t. When inexplicable tragedies strike — through hurricanes, earthquakes, and such – we too call them “acts of God,” without really meaning it.
What matters, however, is not the logic we supply but the response we manage to muster. Aaron, the Torah says, is silent. He endures the loss and moves on.
With all our sophistication on dealing with bereavement, we tend nowadays to fault him for not venting his anger, railing at God, crying foul. I don’t necessarily recommend such stoic silence, but I do marvel at the Torah’s picture of Aaron the father who takes even the tragic death of his children with apparent equanimity.
By contrast, when King David’s son Absalom dies (while in armed revolt against him, no less), David laments, “Oh my son Absalom, Absalom my son, would that I had died instead of you.” What do we learn from Aaron that we do not see in David?
Every biblical hero is painted with faults, but also redeeming virtues. Abraham almost sacrifices his son, but is faithful; Moses loses his temper, but is humble; And Aaron? Aaron’s failure is his compolicity in making the golden calf. What is his distinctive virtue?
From Passover to Shavuot, the period we Jews are traversing at this very moment, we read our way through Pirkei Avot, the rabbinic book of wisdom par excellence. I love the instalment that says, “Be among the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing it.” Aaron’s genius, apparently, lies in the attainment of peace.
But not just any peace.
We normally think of peace as something external, peace between individuals or nations. Aaron was apparently sensitive to that – too sensitive in fact, to the point where he placated the stormy Israelite rebellion at the foot of Mt. Sinai by letting them build the golden calf that was later seen as Aaron’s moral downfall. But I doubt if Aaron could have much luck in the world today. Peace between Ukraine and Russia? Peace for Israel and its Hamas neighbors? It if were just this outward sort of peace, I don’t think Jewish tradition would have bothered mentioning it. Aaron was not anticipating Machiavelli; he was no Henry Kissinger.
So whatever his success at internecine or international intrigue, the peacemaking for which he was reputedly famous was something else altogether — not peace without, but peace within, the kind of inner peace that allows Aaron the father to go on in life despite the trauma of two lost children. Aaron had mastered Joshua Loth Liebman’s peace of mind.
We especially need peace of mind when other forms of peace are lacking. Sooner or later, we all discover our lives spinning out of control. We wake up one day with a rare disease that we thought only other people get; a drunk driver barrels into us and cripples us for life; we discover that someone we love has lied to us; undergo a miscarriage, suffer mid-life crises and problems with aging; lose a job and all the collateral damage that comes with being jobless.
All the more so is that true of our times today, when we cannot even keep up with the daily barrage of news; when no matter how hard we try, we wonder if we are making a difference. How in the world do we get through all that? How do we sleep through the night and manage to get up and face another day?
Only with what Liebman describes and Aaron epitomizes: the inner serenity of soul, the peace of mind that lets us separate briefly from the ongoing traumas that afflict us. I don’t mean deceiving ourselves, declaring ”’Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace,” as Jeremiah puts it. I mean harboring our inner resources lest we deplete ourselves utterly and become a problem to those who love us, and even to ourselves.
“Loving peace of mind and pursuing it” is the only armor we have against life’s inevitable and in tractable trials. It was Aaron’s secret and I try to make it mine as well.
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D. 
Hi Larry,
Another great article – keep me on your list – I love reading them and then, thinking about what your wrote. I am sorry Joel is not here to read them; we used to discuss them together, share our viewpoints.
Yes, I read “Peace of Mind” – no, not in 1946 when I was nine years old. My mother was a writer and reader and she had Liebman’s book. Mom had a large book collection plus her own writings; my father tossed them before I could collect them. I read a library copy many years ago.
I am also rereading Harold Kushner “When All You’ve Ever Wanted isn’t Enough”. I’ve reread parts of some of your books over the years also. We get a different perspective on what we read as we go through life. I will see if the library has Peace of Mind or try to buy it through the used book stores.
Your last two paragraphs hit home. I find it hard to sleep at night even when I do watch the news channel like MSNBC with Chris Hayes, Rachel , Lawrence O’Donnell. It is hard to watch our democracy being destroyed. It is hard to see aid for people who need it refused, science grants taken away, no income for weather ballon, new vaccines and I can go on.
Eric and I are both very worried about what this means for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. As you know, he is on-the- spectrum, they now say neurodiverse. He lives in section 8 housing – his rent was just increased and free internet was just take away. He can no longer work as he has too many health problems; his prescription bills are very high. I don’t know if I can afford his medicals expenses plus I am not legally allow to pay these as he would lose all his benefits. We both are in a bind waiting to see what happens.
I feel sorry about the Pope not living longer – it sounds like he was a good man, really cared for others.
I also read about Chavurat Tikvah changing to be associated with a synagogue. I think it is 43 years, a good run. You once told me it would not last that long. I wonder why they had to change – phoned Sally on this but have not heard back from her.
My Rabbi, Bruce Diamond, is 77 and he is speaking retirement as our Congregation is shrinking, especially during the summer with snowbirds. Joel always spoke of our congregation as our community. I like it being a small group where I know everyone, not the usual mega synagogues which exist. I will have to wait and see what happens.
Many hugs,
Eve
>
Hi Larry,
Another great article – keep me on your list – I love reading them and then, thinking about what your wrote. I am sorry Joel is not here to read them; we used to discuss them together, share our viewpoints.
Yes, I read “Peace of Mind” – no, not in 1946 when I was nine years old. My mother was a writer and reader and she had Liebman’s book. Mom had a large book collection plus her own writings; my father tossed them before I could collect them. I read a library copy many years ago.
I am also rereading Harold Kushner “When All You’ve Ever Wanted isn’t Enough”. I’ve reread parts of some of your books over the years also. We get a different perspective on what we read as we go through life. I will see if the library has Peace of Mind or try to buy it through the used book stores.
Your last two paragraphs hit home. I find it hard to sleep at night even when I do watch the news channel like MSNBC with Chris Hayes, Rachel , Lawrence O’Donnell. It is hard to watch our democracy being destroyed. It is hard to see aid for people who need it refused, science grants taken away, no income for weather ballon, new vaccines and I can go on.
Eric and I are both very worried about what this means for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. As you know, he is on-the- spectrum, they now say neurodiverse. He lives in section 8 housing – his rent was just increased and free internet was just take away. He can no longer work as he has too many health problems; his prescription bills are very high. I don’t know if I can afford his medicals expenses plus I am not legally allow to pay these as he would lose all his benefits. We both are in a bind waiting to see what happens.
I feel sorry about the Pope not living longer – it sounds like he was a good man, really cared for others.
I also read about Chavurat Tikvah changing to be associated with a synagogue. I think it is 43 years, a good run. You once told me it would not last that long. I wonder why they had to change – phoned Sally on this but have not heard back from her.
My Rabbi, Bruce Diamond, is 77 and he is speaking retirement as our Congregation is shrinking, especially during the summer with snowbirds. Joel always spoke of our congregation as our community. I like it being a small group where I know everyone, not the usual mega synagogues which exist. I will have to wait and see what happens.
Many hugs,
Eve
>