How are you, when you find Shalom?

(19) heartening, comforting words: There shall be peace, peace with those afar and near —said YHVH— And I will heal them.

(11) R. Yehoshua said: Great is peace for the name of the blessed Holy One is peace, as scripture states: "And called it YHVH-Peace" (Judges 6: 24).

...R. Yossi the Galilean said: Even the name of the Messiah is shalom, as scripture states: "Avi-ad prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9: 5).

(12) R. Yehoshua said: Great is peace for Israel is called Peace, as scripture states: "For the seed of peace" (Zechariah 8: 12).

... Even if one who denied the existence of God all through life but in the end re/turned, this one has a share in the World-that-is-Coming, for it is said: "There shall be peace, peace with those afar and near —said YHVH— And I will heal them." (Is. 57.19). All of the wicked, and apostates and their like who re/turned, whether publicly or secretly, should be accepted back into the folds of the Jewish community, even as scripture states: "Re/turn you backsliding children" (Jer. 3.22)—even though s/he is backsliding, for s/he re/turned secretly and not publicly, still we accept such a re/turn.

If one thinks and imagines in their mind that s/he has already gotten close to God and has attained Godly knowledge, this is a sign that s/he knows nothing. For if s/he would know a bit about God, s/he would know that he is very distant from God. This is because the closer one comes to God and the more s/he knows, [the more] s/he knows that s/he is very distant and that s/he knows nothing at all.

This is something that words cannot express or explain, because the Creator’s greatness has no limit. It is the aspect of “There shall be peace, peace with those afar and near.” (Isaiah 57:19), the aspect of revealing a handbreadth and concealing [a handbreadth]—since the closer s/he comes, the more one distances oneself, as above.