יִשָּׂ֨א יְהוָ֤ה ׀ פָּנָיו֙ אֵלֶ֔יךָ וְיָשֵׂ֥ם לְךָ֖ שָׁלֽוֹם׃ (ס)
יהוה bestow [divine] favor upon you and grant you peace!
On this verse, it says in the Medrash the following, which will need explanation -
(במדבר ו, כו): וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם, שָׁלוֹם, שָׁלוֹם עִם כָּל אָדָם.
"And grant you peace!" - This is referring to peace between you and all of humanity.
To preface let us look into the writings of the sages -
דָּרֵשׁ רַב עַוִּירָא, זִמְנִין אָמַר לַהּ מִשְּׁמֵיהּ דְּרַבִּי אַמֵּי וְזִמְנִין אָמַר לַהּ מִשְּׁמֵיהּ דְּרַבִּי אַסִּי: אָמְרוּ מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא: רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, כָּתוּב בְּתוֹרָתֶךָ ״אֲשֶׁר לֹא יִשָּׂא פָנִים וְלֹא יִקַּח שֹׁחַד״, וַהֲלֹא אַתָּה נוֹשֵׂא פָּנִים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, דִּכְתִיב: ״יִשָּׂא ה׳ פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ״?! אָמַר לָהֶם: וְכִי לֹא אֶשָּׂא פָּנִים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, שֶׁכָּתַבְתִּי לָהֶם בַּתּוֹרָה ״וְאָכַלְתָּ וְשָׂבָעְתָּ וּבֵרַכְתָּ אֶת ה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ״, וְהֵם מְדַקְדְּקִים [עַל] עַצְמָם עַד כְּזַיִת וְעַד כְּבֵיצָה.
The ministering angels said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, in Your Torah it is written: “The great, mighty and awesome God who favors no one and takes no bribe” (Deuteronomy 10:17), yet You, nevertheless, show favor to Israel, as it is written: “The Lord shall show favor to you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:26). He replied to them: And how can I not show favor to Israel, as I wrote for them in the Torah: “And you shall eat and be satisfied, and bless the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 8:10), meaning that there is no obligation to bless the Lord until one is satiated; yet they are exacting with themselves to recite Grace after Meals even if they have eaten as much as an olive-bulk or an egg-bulk. Since they go beyond the requirements of the law, they are worthy of favor.
Let us break this down. We know HaShem repays those with exact measure for measure, so what is the measure for measure over here? For what they are precise for with their usage of food, they receive reward in the form of peace.
However, to explain what this means, we will look into the teaching of the sages -
However, to explain what this means, we will look into the teaching of the sages -
הָרוֹאֶה קְדֵרָה בַּחֲלוֹם, יַשְׁכִּים וְיֹאמַר: ״ה׳ תִּשְׁפֹּת שָׁלוֹם לָנוּ״
One who sees a pot in a dream should rise early and recite: “Lord, You will establish peace for us,”
And we will now understand the connection between a cooking pot and peace.
Behold, it is taught by the sages -
Behold, it is taught by the sages -
אמר רב יהודה לעולם יהא אדם זהיר בתבואה בתוך ביתו שאין מריבה מצויה בתוך ביתו של אדם אלא על עסקי תבואה שנאמר (תהלים קמז, יד) השם גבולך שלום חלב חטים ישביעך אמר רב פפא היינו דאמרי אינשי כמשלם שערי מכדא נקיש ואתי תיגרא בביתא
Apropos the topic of how man should approach his household, Rav Yehuda says: A person must always be careful about ensuring that there is grain inside his house, as discord is found in a person’s house only over matters of grain, as it is stated: “He makes your borders peace; He gives you plenty with the finest wheat” (Psalms 147:14). If there is the finest wheat in your house, there will be peace there. Rav Pappa said: This is in accordance with the adage that people say: When the barley is emptied from the jug, quarrel knocks and enters the house.
Based on this, the cooking pot is an implication that there exists food in the house to cook in the first place, which in that case, there will be no argument in the house, which makes sense why its a good sign for peace.
We will further preface with another teaching from the Medrash on the below verse in Proverbs -
We will further preface with another teaching from the Medrash on the below verse in Proverbs -
כַּבֵּ֣ד אֶת־יְ֭הֹוָה מֵהוֹנֶ֑ךָ וּ֝מֵרֵאשִׁ֗ית כׇּל־תְּבוּאָתֶֽךָ׃
Honor the LORD with your wealth,
With the best of all your income,
With the best of all your income,
The Midrash teaches - do not read this is as honor with your wealth (Honcha) rather honor with your grain (Gorencha), and the intention here is that a person should be conservative with his grains, which means from the amount he eats, therefor he will have saved food from himself to share with others.
As this was the intention of Proverbs, how to honor Lord with your wealth? To give charity to poor people. Even if you don't have enough money for yourself, still there is a pathway to give charity to others, which is not honoring HaShem with you wealth, but with your grain! This happens through a person being conservative with how much they eat, so they can ration food on the side for someone that doesn't have what to eat.
As this was the intention of Proverbs, how to honor Lord with your wealth? To give charity to poor people. Even if you don't have enough money for yourself, still there is a pathway to give charity to others, which is not honoring HaShem with you wealth, but with your grain! This happens through a person being conservative with how much they eat, so they can ration food on the side for someone that doesn't have what to eat.
And now we can explain the teaching we mentioned above from the Talmud, when HaShem responds by saying that he doesn't favor Israel, rather I wrote them in the Torah "To eat, satiate, and bless", that the deeper meaning here is that my people are stringent with their food allocations, meaning that they are cautious on their food intake, in order that there should always be leftovers for poor people.
And we already have written above that in a place that poverty is found, argument is also found. Therefor, when you take upon yourself to worry to fill the needs of a poor person with bread and food, we bring peace into their houses.. and with this we can very well understand what the measure for measure here is with HaShem when it says that since the Israelites are conservative with their food rations, they receive peace.. meaning that since they took upon themselves to withhold the pleasures of glutinous eating in order to share their food with someone who doesn't have it, bringing peace into this poor persons house, so we see that you are helping increase the peace in someone else's house, therefor you receive yourself in measure for measure that HaShem will give you peace!
And we already have written above that in a place that poverty is found, argument is also found. Therefor, when you take upon yourself to worry to fill the needs of a poor person with bread and food, we bring peace into their houses.. and with this we can very well understand what the measure for measure here is with HaShem when it says that since the Israelites are conservative with their food rations, they receive peace.. meaning that since they took upon themselves to withhold the pleasures of glutinous eating in order to share their food with someone who doesn't have it, bringing peace into this poor persons house, so we see that you are helping increase the peace in someone else's house, therefor you receive yourself in measure for measure that HaShem will give you peace!
And with this we can understand the teachings of the Medrash that we started with when it says that HaShem will grant you peace, meaning peace with all of humanity.. which we can now see that the Medrash is simply teaching us the trick to merit having peace in your life, so therefor it says Peace with all of humanity, since this person is conservative with his food rations in order to share with others, which will cause all of Israel to have enough food in their homes, which will cause peace in their homes, so then measure for measure comes into action and then one is worthy for the blessing where HaShem will grant you peace, and HaShem will bring upon you life and peace!