Where Tikkun Olam Begins

Where Tikkun Olam Begins

I want to talk with you about tikkun olam - but not about writing a check, volunteering your time, or joining a committee to repair the world by bringing about social justice.

Though we are most familiar with hearing the term "tikkun olam" used in connection with these things, if this is all tikkun olam is, what is it that makes it distinctly Jewish except the Hebrew label.

After all, I have Christian friends who do all these things...because they're following the teaching and example of Jesus.

And I have a couple of good friends who are atheists... who do them out of the conviction that there's no God to make the world better, therefore, it's the responsibility of man to create morality and justice.

So, if these actions by themselves aren't specifically Jewish, what is it that makes our tikkun olam Jewish?

We can find an answer to this question by looking at the prayer we say at the conclusion of every service: Aleinu. There we find that "tikkun olam" is only part of the answer. The complete phrase is "l'taken olam b'malchut shaddai"
"to repair the world by God's sovreignty"

Aleinu shares a distinctly Jewish vision that God has created us with a unique mission in this world: to do God's will and bring Him praise. It sees a future in which all people will acknowledge this kingship of our God and serve Him, then the world will be perfected through His kingship. The whole world will now accept our God as King, even as we proclaim God's kingship over us every Rosh Hashanah.

The path to this future is laid out for us in the Torah, where we are given mitzvot - not generic good deeds - but sacred opportunities to be God's representatives on earth, creating His will through both ritual worship rooted in the desire to "be holy because [our] God is holy;" and an interpersonal code of conduct grounded in the premise that each and every person is holy - created in God's image - and is to be treated with dignity.

These mitzvot - both communal and individual - ritual and ethical - give us the purpose and the means to reign in our baser natures and create a society that is just, moral, ethical ...holy.

Torah commands us to do both tzedekah (justice) and gemillat chasedim (acts of compassion). From the mitzvah to leave the corners of the fields for the poor we learn that we are not to be content with producing only enough for ourselves, but we must also provide for those less fortunate. From the mitzvah of shemittah, the sabbatical year, when the land was not to be sown and all debts were canceled, we learn that debt was never to lead to permanent enslavement through poverty and that the land is not ours to abuse for profit but is a trust that requires our stewardship - even if this means less short-term profit.

Other mitzvot teach us that workers deserve safe working conditions and fair wages need to be paid in a timely manner along with many other concepts found in our modern views of social justice. Torah teaches us the principles of a moral and just society as the vision for God's kingdom. This is the society our prophets later urged the people to aspire to. They understood that our beliefs about God and social justice were entwined - to serve God was to act with justice and compassion.

In Torah's model, we repair the world by doing what God requires of us, by consciously acting as agents of the Divine - God's people under His kingship. Doing tikkun olam in this way elevates our social action to more than generic *good deeds*, our social action becomes a way to draw closer to God by fulfilling His will. This tikkun olam will draw others toward our God, as we read in this week's parashah of V'etchanan  :

Observe them [the mitzvot] faithfully, for that will be proof of your wisdom and discernment to other peoples, who on hearing of all these laws will say, "Surely, that great nation is a wise and discerning people." For what great nation is there that has God so close at hand as the LORD our God is whenever we call upon Him? Or what great nation has laws and rules so righteous as all this Teaching that I set before you this day?  (Deuteronomy 4:6-8)

This is our unique Jewish mandate, one that we hope will lead us to the world we pray for in Aleinu.

So go ahead and give, volunteer, and join committees to bring about social justice...but don't do it as tikkun olam - do it as tikkun olam b'malchut shaddai: a sacred opportunity to draw closer to God by repairing His world and bringing justice and compassion to those created in His image.

Shabbat Shalom.

Summer Lay-Sermon Program 5772
Temple Beth-El Richmond, VA