shalom and zedakah

Peace and Justice.

Those two words motivate my heart into action. Just recently I began thinking about how they work together, which required a word study into the meaning behind the words.

I stumbled upon an article that helped me get started with research.

Taking a dive into the Hebrew...

Peace=Shalom

I've loved this word for a long time. I knew that it went beyond just peace, and actually meant wholeness, peace, joy,freedom, reconciliation, community,
harmony of all creation--both physical and spiritual,righteousness, truth, justice, communication,humanity. Jesus was saying, "Blessed are the shalom-makers." What I did not know is that "Perhaps the best English word to translate shalom is not 'peace' but the word 'Zion'" and Zion "is a state of justice where culture, institutions, and personal relationships all honor the worth of persons and the restoration of the worth of all." I need to study this out more.

Now onto the word with which I am much less familiar. Justice. God takes it seriously-- "Justice and only justice, you shall pursue..."—[deuteronomy 16:20] In my search for understanding, i stumbled upon this paragraph: "One word for justice in Hebrew is zedakah. The concept of justice in Judaism is different from Greek-Western views of this concept. The emphasis is not on "retribution" (punishment) or "distribution" (fair shares for all). It is more what human living should be like. That is why the word zedakah is not only translated into English as justice but also as righteousness, which means living a just life personally."

Often I associate justice as an action that is holding hands with mercy--"Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." [psalm 85:10] But I never thought deeply about it in relation to peace. Now I'm starting the thinking process, and more than anything I'm realizing that both justice and peace are meant to bring about an outcome of wholeness.

Lots more studying needs to take place...


http://www.cofchrist.org/peace/
[disclaimer: I am not familiar with the church or their beliefs as a whole. I do appreciate the information that I gathered from their site on the subjects of justice and peace. That information helped me get started with some questions to ask in studying these words.]