Internal and External Peace

I will grant peace in the Land so that you will sleep without fear. I will rid the Land of dangerous animals, and the sword will not pass through your Land.                      Leviticus 26:1

            Ibn Ezra, and following him, Naḥmanides, explain: “I will grant peace – among yourselves.” Similarly, Or haḤayyim writes:

                   Perhaps the verse refers to the nation of Israel                        itself, that their hearts  will not be divided and                          God will grant them peace and brotherhood.

That is, Israel’s internal peace within its Land will bring forth the situation of peace in the sense of lack of war, (not only will there be no war against Israel, but “the sword will not [even pass through” its Land.

            Our Sages taught us that we can infer the negative from the positive, and thus the concept which the verse presents , that peace in the Land of Israel depends upon bein adam l’ḥavero, is related to our Sages’ teaching that the second Temple was destroyed due to “baseless hatred” among the Jews.

            Yet, beyond this, internal peace affects even the animal world, as the verse states “I will rid the Land of dangerous animals.” Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch in commenting on the verse refers us to Isaiah’s vision [11:6-8]:

And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisk's den.

            Several commentators explain that Isaiah’s prophecy is of a return to the primal condition of creation, in which there were no beasts of prey, and all animals ate only of the herbs of the fields. However, man’s sins influenced the natural world and lead to the creation of beasts of prey. Thus, Isaiah’s prophecy of the end of days includes the return of the animal world to its original status, and hence there will no longer be beats of prey.

            Based upon ibn Ezra’s elucidation, the verse indeed teaches the great power of human behavior to affect the entire animal world.