Shalom Bayit Pendant

November 2009
Sterling silver

I was asked to come up with a few designs to symbolize the Jewish concept of shalom bayit, simply translated as "peace in the home." Nothing ever came of the project, so I decided to take my favorite one of the designs and turn it into jewelry. I started with the most basic geometric shape that I could think of that would universally represent a house, which is a square that has the top edge bent out into a triangular shape. To represent "shalom," I use the first letter of the Hebrew spelling, shin (ש). By itself, shin can also represent God, which is appropriate for the design--the Jewish ideal holds that a family that keeps God at the center of the home will be a peaceful one.

[ BACK to Judaica ]