Shalom aleichem

In the Hebrew Bible, various characters use the greeting shalom, in the form šālōm lǝkā (masculine singular) or šālōm lākem (plural).

The term šālōm ʿālēkā (masculine singular) is first attested in the Scroll of Blessings for the First Month (before 30 BCE), a Dead Sea Scroll, where it is spelled, in their manner, with a final he.

The plural šālōm ʿălēkem first appears in the Jerusalem Talmud (c. 400 CE), always with a plural object. It occurs there six times and the response is to repeat šālōm ʿălēkem.

Šālōm ʿālēkā appears many times in the Talmud Bavli (c. 500 CE), where the response is to repeat šālōm ʿālēkā.

The inverted response ʿālēkā šālōm (masculine singular) is first attested in the Midrash Abba Gorion (before 1050 CE), in the gloss on Esther 3:5:

"What did Haman do when he passed by and Mordechai did not rise to greet him?[lower-alpha 1] He came from one side and made as if Mordechai had greeted him,[lower-alpha 2] saying 'ʿālēkā šālōm,' but Mordechai replied, 'the LORD says there is no šālōm for the wicked.'" — Isaiah 48–22

The plural greeting and response became common among Ashkenazi Jews in the second half of the next millennium, as the use of plural forms to denote respect was imported from French and German.[5]

Among Arabs, the variation as-salāmuʿalaikum (Arabic: ٱلسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُم, lit. 'peace be upon you') has been a traditional greeting since antiquity, with the appropriate response being wa ʿalaykumu s-salām (وَعَلَيْكُمُ ٱلسَّلَام, lit. 'and unto you peace'). Following the early Muslim conquests in the 7th century, it was established as a prevalent greeting among many non-Arab Muslims.

In Aramaic and Classic Syriac, the term shlama 'allāwkhon (ܫܠܡܐ ܥܠܘܟ݂ܘܢ, lit. 'peace on you') is prevalent.

Similar greetings gained prominence with the rise of European Christianity. Within the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, bishops and priests initially use the liturgical greeting "peace be with you" (Greek: Εἰρήνη σoι; Latin: Pax vobiscum) during divine services. During the Mass, Catholic priests who are not bishops say "the Lord be with you" (Dóminus vobíscum), with "and with your spirit" being the appropriate response. Bishops and priests also use the somewhat similar greeting "the peace of the Lord be with you always" during the Mass. In the Orthodox Church, the greeting is always "peace be with you" during services.

Similarly, "peace be with you" is used within Anglicanism, particularly within the liturgies of the Episcopal Church and others in the Anglican Communion, with the "and also with you" being the appropriate response. In the liturgy of the Lutheran Church, the greeting by the pastor is "the peace of Christ be with you always" followed by "and also with you" as the congregation's response. Others, such as the Presbyterian Church and the Church of the Brethren, have similar traditional greetings.