No, this is nothing to do with the Iranian War and its possible outcomes. This is all about three people who were leading figures in their respective generations—Aharon HaKohen, Hillel and Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, the Chafetz Chaim.
Peace, we know from Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel at Avot 1:18,
is one of the three values that keep the world going, along with truth and
justice. Although there is relatively little express support in the Tanach for
the proposition that Moshe Rabbenu’s elder brother Aharon was a man dedicated
to the establishment of peace, midrash is replete with stories of his selfless
commitment to this value. Aharon is taken as the epitome of peace; he is the
role-model whose example we are encouraged to follow. This is beyond dispute.
Another icon of interpersonal peace was Hillel the Elder,
who is portrayed in the Babylonian Talmud as a man who was averse to conflict
and practised the skills of friction-free interaction with his fellows. A
kindred spirit to Aharon, Hillel picks up on this topic at Avot 1:12 where he
teaches:
הֱוֵי
מִתַּלְמִידָיו שֶׁל אַהֲרֹן, אוֹהֵב שָׁלוֹם וְרוֹדֵף שָׁלוֹם, אוֹהֵב אֶת
הַבְּרִיּוֹת, וּמְקָרְבָן לַתּוֹרָה
Be of the disciples of Aharon—a
lover of peace, a pursuer of peace, one who loves people and draws them close
to the Torah.
Now what does the Chafetz Chaim have to add? Here we turn to
Ruchi Koval’s Soul Purpose, where she credits him with the following
idea:
“[A] person should create a
‘Shalom Fund’, a peace fund. This is a set amount of money that’s designated
per year, allocated for the sake of peace.
Neighbor ran over your grass? Pay
the gardener to repair it out of your Shalom Fund instead of creating discord.
A classmate borrowed your kid’s sweatshirt and never returned it, and now it’s
lost? Buy a new one out of your Shalom Fund. We have budget items for food,
shelter, vacations, education, and entertainment. Let’s be proactive pursuers
of peace and budget for harmonious relationships, too”
It’s a great idea—even if it is somewhat limited in that its
main sphere of application is in preventing disputes that the owner of the
Shalom Fund might otherwise be initiating. But does it really come from the
Chafetz Chaim?
Rabbi Yisrael Meir
Kagan did not write a pirush on Pirkei Avot, but there are several
cut-and-paste collections of “Chafetz Chaim on Avot” in circulation, including
Rabbi David Zaretsky’s The Hafetz Hayyim on Pirkey Avoth (1975) and Shmuel
Charlap, Chafetz Chaim al Masechet Avot (1962). None of these works
mention anything about a “Shalom Fund” in the commentaries on our mishnah. Have
they missed something?
The origin of the “Shalom Fund” is a sentence in the Chafetz
Chaim’s book Ahavat Chesed, where he writes:
וְיֵשׁ
לִקְבּוֹעַ קֻפָּה מְיֻחֶדֶת לְשָׁלוֹם בַּיִת, לְסַיֵּעַ לַאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר
נִתְרַעֲעוּ יַחְסֵיהֶם מִפְּנֵי דֹּחַק וְחֶסְרוֹן, כִּי עַל־יְדֵי זֶה
יִתְיַשְּׁבוּ הַדְּבָרִים וְיָבוֹא הַשָּׁלוֹם
“One should establish a
designated fund for peace in the home, to assist people whose relationships
have deteriorated because of pressure
and lack (of means) for, through this, things will be settled and peace will
come”.
The author explicitly references marital discord as the sort
of situation he has in mind, where the peace that is so bady needed is shalom
bayit—domestic peace. It is most improbable that Hillel had this in mind
when citing Aharon as the epitome of a peace-seeker, but it cannot be denied
that the concept of the “Shalom Fund”, appropriately expanded, fits in neatly with
the thrust of Hillel’s mishnah and it is surprising that other Chafetz Chaim
devotees did not make the connection earlier.
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