Many of us are undoubtedly familiar with the term tikkun olam, or repairing the world. Most often, we tend to think of this term as referring to social justice or social change work, as it is used in this context by numerous Jewish organizations and individual activists. Beyond this contemporary meaning, the term tikkun olam has a very interesting history and has been used to mean a variety of different things depending upon the context. In classic rabbinic thought, tikkun olam is used to discuss legislative enactments that reflected good governance and public policy while in Lurianic Kabbalah, a branch of Kabbalah begun by Rabbi Isaac Luria in Safed, Israel in the 16th century, tikkun olam acquired a profoundly mystical meaning and referred to one’s individual actions and the effect that such actions, such as doing ritual and ethical mitzvot had upon the cosmos.

Tikkun olam is first encountered in rabbinic literature in the Mishna, a corpus of rabbinic oral law which is divided into six sederim or orders and which was codified by rabbi Judah the Prince in the second century C.E. In the Mishna, the term mipnei tikkun haolam is used to refer to legislative enactments that were seen as proper public policy. These laws were meant to benefit marginalized populations, particularly the rights of women in the context of divorce proceedings. Thus, in this sense, tikkun olam can be seen as a vehicle through which to make the world and society a more equitable and fair place. Outside of the Mishna, there are several references to the term tikkun olam in the agadic Midrash. In this context, tikkun olam refers primarily to the importance of sustaining the physical environment.

Lurianic Kabbalah took the term tikkun olam and assigned to it an entirely new and inventive mystical vocabulary. Rabbi Isaac Luria lived in Safed in the 16th century C.E. One of his well-known doctrines is that of tzimtzum or divine contraction. In a nutshell, he taught that at the time of the creation of the world, G-d contracted G-dself to allow for the creation of our physical world. G-d emanated G-dself through ten sefirot or attributes of the Divine Presence. Each of these sefirot, sefirah in the singular was contained in a kli, or vessel. Unfortunately, some of the kelim were too weak and could not contain the power of some of the sefirot and as a result they shattered. This shattering of the vessels resulted in the mixing of G-d’s divine light with the klipot, or shells of the vessels. This intermixing is why evil exists in our world. Divine perfection, or tikkun, will once again be restored when the vessels are reconstituted. Luria taught that Adam had the power to achieve this rectification but lost the opportunity to do so owing to his sin in Gan Eden or the Garden of Eden, thus leaving the responsibility to future generations.

In this sense, every action that an individual does has an immense impact upon the cosmos and can affect its tikkun or rectification. One of the things that the Lurianic Kabbalists were best known for is their creation of new rituals and liturgies, such as Kabbalat Shabbat, the series of psalms and songs we sing to welcome the Sabbath on Friday evening, the practice of participating in a tikkun leil Shavuot, which literally means repairing or rectifying the evening of the festival of Shavuot on which we celebrate the Torah’s revelation on Mt. Sinai as well as the seder for Tu Bishvat or the new year for trees which is explicitly modeled after the Pesach seder. These new liturgies, combined with the observance of all other mitzvot, the Lurianic Kabbalists believed, would aid in the repair and perfecting of the cosmos. In this way, every action that every individual takes has immense cosmological significance, not to be underestimated. Although the emphasis was placed on the proper observance of the ritual mitzvot such as Shabbat and Kashrut, proper observance and application of ethical mitzvot is no less critical. This idea is most commonly expressed in Chassidic communities and other groups profoundly impacted by Lurianic Kabbalah.

In addition to its rabbinic and Kabbalistic meanings, tikkun olam also appears in the Aleinu, the prayer which ends each of the three daily Jewish prayer services. In this context, tikkun olam refers to a time when the entire world will be united under the perfection of G-d’s rule and sovereignty.

Today, tikkun olam is most often used to refer to actions that will repair the world around us, making it a better place for all, and a dwelling place for G-d as it were. Jewish social action and social change work on a whole host of issues places this value, this imperative at the very heart of what they do. The term tikkun olam can refer to work on any number of issues, be they on a more local scale, a national scale or even on a global scale. The notion that it is our duty, not simply a laudable gesture to repair the world, to serve as agents of change in our own unique way is very resonant for Jews of all backgrounds, from the Orthodox to the non-affiliated or secular. In some ways, it is possible to see strands of both the classical rabbinic understanding as well as the Lurianic Kabbalistic understanding of the term tikkun olam in how it is contemporarily applied. The value of tikkun olam has compelled many to do global service work, working directly to improve access to opportunities and a better standard of living for marginalized groups around the world as well as in our own backyard. Just as the rabbis invoked the term mipnei tikkun haolam to refer to legislative matters, people involved in a range of political causes and concerns also use the term tikkun olam to describe their work. And just as the Midrash speaks of tikkun olam as referring directly to the sustenance of G-d’s creation, our physical work, Jewish environmentalists and those involved in food and other sustainable ventures derive much meaning and resonance from the term as well.