eu·re·ka (yŏŏ-rē’kə)

The one Hebrew word that everyone knows is shalom (שָׁלוֹם).  It’s nearly always translated as peace or as a colloquial greeting between Jews.

The English word peace has its origin in the Latin pax – peace – coming from the genitive singular “paces”.  The term “Pax Romana” denotes a period of calm and relative prosperity just as the “Pax Americana” came to mean so many centuries later.  And so we associate peace with tranquility and an absence of war.

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