Tikkun olam (, or more classically tikkun ha'olam; ), is a religious concept in Judaism, which refers to various forms of action intended to repair and improve the world.
In classical rabbinic literature, the phrase referred to legal enactments intended to preserve the social order. In the Aleinu, it refers to the eradication of idolatry. In midrash, it often refers to divine action to balance and sustain the world, especially in relationship to Nature. In Lurianic Kabbalah, the "repair" is mystical: to return the sparks of Divine light to their source, employing ritual performance. However, it is only much later in Kabbalah that this concept is applied to tikkun olam, rather than to the repair of a particular world or sefirah among the infinitely many worlds beyond the physical world. In the modern period, the Lurianic understanding of cosmic repair provided a mythos to inspire deep religious feelings about tikkun olam.
In the modern era, particularly among the post-Haskalah movements, tikkun ha'olam has come to refer to the pursuit of social justice, or "the establishment of Godly qualities throughout the world", based on the idea that "Jews bear responsibility not only for their own moral, spiritual, and material welfare, but also for the welfare of society at large". This understanding of tikkun olam has deep roots in midrash, musar, and Jewish thought that connect tikkun ha'olam to building society, loving one's neighbors, and to religious humanism in general.
History In the Mishnah The earliest use of the term tikkun ha'olam appears in the Mishnah in the phrase "for the sake of repairing the world" (, Gittin 4:2–9), with the meaning of amending the law to keep society well-functioning.
Several legal enactments appear in this passage, with "for the sake of repairing the world" given as justification:Mishna Gittin 4:2–9 One cannot convene a court in another place to nullify a get (divorce document). (4:2) One must fully specify the names of the husband and wife on a divorce document. (4:2) A widow can collect her ketubah even without a formal oath. (4:3) Witnesses must sign the divorce document. (4:3) Prozbul was instituted. (4:3) If an enslaver set aside an enslaved person as a designated repayment for his debts, the enslaved person is freed, but the responsibility to repay the debt is transferred to them. (4:4) If two people enslave one person, and one enslaver frees that person, the formerly enslaved person is forced to repay the second enslaver his share of the value of the enslavement. (4:5) Captives are not redeemed for more than their monetary value. (4:6) Captives are not aided in their attempts to escape (so that captors do not make the conditions of captivity more restrictive, or else so that captors do not take revenge on other captives). (4:6) Torah scrolls, tefillin, and mezuzot are not purchased from non-Jews for more than their value. (4:6) When a husband made a vow requiring him to divorce his wife, they were then allowed to remarry. (4:7) One who sold their field to a Gentile must purchase and bring the first fruits from that field. (4:9)
More generally, tikkun can mean improvement, establishment, repair, preparation, and other related concepts. In the Mishnaic context, it generally refers to practical legal measures taken in the present to ameliorate social conditions. In the legal language of the Talmud, however, the verb took on a much more legalistic role, in that a takkana "affixation" was a category of legal enactment made by the Chazal.
In Aleinu A conception of tikkun olam is also found in the Aleinu, a concluding part of most Jewish congregational prayer, which, in contrast to the Mishnah's usage, focuses on the end of time. The Aleinu beseeches God:Aleinu
In other words, when all the people of the world abandon false gods, and recognize God, the world will have been perfected. The eschatological idea that tikkun olam is a process that ends in redemption is rooted in this element of Aleinu.
Among modern liberal Jewish movements, a common, but more modern, understanding of this phrase is that we share a partnership with God, and are instructed to take the steps towards improving the state of the world, and helping others, which simultaneously brings more honor to God's sovereignty.
Some scholars have argued that the Aleinu prayer is actually not a valid source for the concept of tikkun olam, claiming that the original prayer used a homonym "l'takhen" (spelled differently, ), meaning "to establish" (rather than "to fix", or "to repair"); this wording is still used by Yemenite Jews. However, among European Jews, Aleinu has used the word "to fix" () since at least the first recorded texts in the 11th–12th centuries. Thus, Aleinu's influence on the concept of tikkun olam can date to at least this time.
Maimonides Over the course of Jewish intellectual history, tikkun ha'olam has at times referred to eschatological concerns, as in Aleinu, and at times to practical concerns, as in the Mishnah, but in either context, it refers to some kind of social change or process that is for the betterment of Jews or Gentiles, or the world. Whether that happens primarily within Jewish society, or primarily in relation to the nations of the world, whether that happens primarily through acts of justice and kindness, or equally through ritual observance, whether primarily through internal work of an individual or through external deeds, is something that changes from one source to the next.See Seidenberg, David, "A Tikkun for Tikkun Olam?: How 'To Heal the World?' Corrupts Debate & Endangers Judaism"
For example, Talmudic scholar and eminent philosopher Maimonides saw tikkun ha'olam as fully inclusive of all these dimensions when he wrote: "Through wisdom, which is [represented by] Torah, and the elevation of character, which is [represented by] acts of kindness, and observing the Torah's commandments, which are [represented by] the sacrifices, one continuously brings tikkun ha'olam improvement of the world, and the ordering of reality."commentary on Pirkei Avot, 1:2 (for Hebrew, see here). Yet, he also saw justice as the fundamental component, as, for example, when he wrote, "Every judge who judges truth unto its [deepest] truth, even for one hour, it's as if he fixed the whole world entirely / tikein et kol ha'olam kulo and caused the Shekhinah to rest upon Israel."Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Sanhedrin 23:9, as translated by Seidenberg, "History and Evolution".
Jewish Social Thought An emphasis on universal or humanistic ethical principles in relation to tikkun ha'olam is also found in the social thought of Jewish philosophers and ethical thinkers through the centuries. Though this tradition was more of an unconscious influence on modern ideas about tikkun olam, since these sources were less known, it demonstrates that the so-called liberal interpretations of tikkun ha'olam have deep historical roots. The following examples are all quoted in translation from "The History and Evolution of Tikkun Olam":
Tanna deVei Eliyahu: "‘Don’t oppress your neighbor and don’t steal’— your neighbor behold is like your brother, and your brother is like your neighbor, so you have learned that stealing from an idolater is forbidden."
Bachya ibn Pakuda: "one’s involvement with people in establishing the world, from plowing and harvest [to] buying and selling and [such] matters through which some people are helped by some [others] in [the process of] settling the world — [namely,] that one should love for them [to receive] what one would love for oneself from them, and ...have compassion for them, and according to one’s ability [one should] push away from them whatever would harm them, as it’s written (Lev. 19:18), 'And you will love your neighbor like yourself.'"
Pinchas Hurwitz: "The essence of loving neighbors is that a person would love all humanity, being from whatever people they are from and from whatever language they speak, for each is a person in [God’s] image and in [God’s] likeness like oneself, and engaged in settling the world . . . for by means of these things the world is established according to its proper order / ha’olam omeid k’tikuno..."
By the time of Natan Friedland, an early Zionist thinker, a full-blown progressive interpretation (as modern society would understand it) was well-formed:"Neighbor" is what someone is called who joins themself with you in nearness of spirit/consciousness and in humanistic values, who will be whomever they will be (i.e. from whatever race or tribe or country or religion)—[the] only [qualification is] that they should be in the category of lovers of humanity and the upright of heart, doing justice for the oppressed and engaging in the settling of the world / yishuvah shel olam... And this is the proper order for the redemption of the world / tikkun ha’olam: in the beginning, love of neighbor and peace, and from this one will come unto the truth, and from this one will come unto righteous justice, for the judges will find a world mended / olam m’tukan, and according to [the nature of] the world, so will be the laws.
Lurianic Kabbalah
Lurianic Kabbalah dwells on the role of prayer and ritual in the tikkun of the upper worlds. Though this is not the same as tikkun olam, these concepts had a huge impact on the development of ideas about tikkun olam about two centuries later, most notably, through the work of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto.
According to the Lurianic vision of the world, God contracted part of God's infinite light (Ohr Ein Sof) to create the world. The vessels of the first universe, the World of Chaos, shattered and their shards became sparks of light trapped within the next universe, the World of Rectification. Prayer, especially contemplation of various aspects of the divinity (sephirot), releases these sparks of God's light and allows them to reunite with God's essence. The "rectification" is two-fold: the gathering of light and of souls, to be achieved by human beings through the contemplative performance of religious acts. The goal of such repair, which can only be effected by humans, is to separate what is holy from the created world, thus depriving the physical world of its very existence, destroying the material universe. This restores all things to a world before disaster within the Godhead.
According to Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, in his book, Derech Hashem, the physical world is connected to spiritual realms above that influence the physical world, and Jews have the ability, through physical deeds and free will, to direct and control these spiritual forces.Derech Hashem, II:4:6-7. This exact definition of tikkun olam provided by Luzzatto is what people generally mean with they talk about tikkun olam in Kabbalah. God's desire in creating the world was that God's creations would ultimately recognize God's unity and overcome evil; this will constitute the perfection (tikkun) of creation. While Luzzatto understands this task to be strictly in the hands of the Jewish people now, other Kabbalists believe that the completion of rectification (g'mar hatikkun) will be when all of humanity will recognize and live by these truths.
Modern developments
Sourced in Kabbalah In recent years, Jewish thinkers and activists have used Lurianic Kabbalah to elevate the full range of ethical and ritual mitzvot into acts of tikkun olam. The belief that not only does prayer lift divine sparks, but so do all of the mitzvot, including those traditionally understood as ethical, was already a part of Kabbalah. The contemporary emphasis serves the purpose of finding a mystical depth and spiritual energy in ethical mitzvot. The application of the Lurianic vision to improving the world can be seen in Jewish blogs, High Holiday sermons, and on-line Jewish learning resource centers.