The theme for this week, for the Second Sunday of Advent, is “Peace.” When I think about peace, I think about the Hebrew word shalom, which we usually translate “peace”; but it means something a little different. I speak a little modern Hebrew. In fact, I speak about as much modern Hebrew as a one-and-a-half-to-two year old—and I know this because we have a lot of them in our neighborhood. The second-most-spoken language in our local elementary school is not Spanish or Mandarin or Hindi, but Hebrew; there are a lot of Israeli expats and immigrants who work in the tech sector in Cambridge and live near us. So I’ve gotten a lot of practice with my playground-Hebrew listening skills.

When you say “How are you?” in Hebrew you say, Ma shalomka? It means “how are you,” but if you didn’t know that you might translate it, “How is your peace?” This should be our first hint that shalom doesn’t really mean what we think of as “peace” in English.

When I think of “peace,” I think of the absence of something: the absence of conflict, the absence of noise, the absence of trouble. “I just want a little peace and quiet.” But shalom must mean something else. “How is your peace?”

Here’s the second clue: when you’ve paid a bill in Hebrew, you say Shilemti et ha-cheshbon, “I made peace with the bill.” “Peace” has this sense of wholeness, of rightness, of completion. When I make peace with the bill, I’ve paid it off; I’ve completed the transaction. When I am at peace, I am whole, I am well, I am healthy. There is something right between me and the world, between me and God.

A lot of us have had more peace than we wanted to, in the sense of “peace and quiet” in the last month. It’s been so quiet we’ve felt isolated. Some of us, especially those with little kids or loud family members working next to us, have had too little peace in the sense of “peace and quiet.” But I think none of us have had quite enough peace in that sense of wholeness, of wellness, of completion, of rightness between ourselves and the world, between us and God.

So this week, I wonder; what is it that is bringing you peace? What is it that’s not just bringing you quiet, but wholeness? How can we cultivate peace in a world that’s often not peaceful? How can we grow into our whole selves, at peace with God and one another?