Healing the World Isn’t Just a Liberal Thing

Recently my local Jewish Community Relations Council requested funding to increase its social action activities. Why? Because studies show that that is one of the few ways to engage unaffiliated young Jews. “Social action” has become the watchword of American Jewry. David Saperstein of Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center has argued that social action among American Jews today outdoes that of the social activism heyday—the 1960s.

We cannot complain that the rate of participation in social causes made by American Jews is increasing—it’s part of our civic responsibility. In fact, most would assert that it is our Jewish responsibility. But can social action substitute for Judaism? That is a far more difficult question.

To answer, we must consider the concept of tikkun olam—repairing the world. The term as it has entered the broader, secular vocabulary has become synonymous with social activism, indeed American liberalism. Even Bill Clinton has used the term, as have numerous other politicians seeking the “Jewish vote.” So what exactly is tikkun olam? And why has it become a mantra for American Jews?

The term is found in the aleinu prayer where it refers to the messianic era when the world will be perfected under the sovereignty of God: l’taken olam b’malchut shaddai. It is found as well in the Mishnah as tikkun ha-olam where it refers to the justification for social welfare legislation that, while not required, make for good public policy. And most relevant perhaps, it is a key concept in Kabbalistic literature. As 16th-century Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria believed, God concentrated himself to allow space for the world to be created. In the process vessels of light shattered and their shards became sparks of light trapped in the material world. Contemplating the aspects of divinity (sefirot) releases these sparks and allows them to reunite with God’s essence. This is .

This approach, of course, is worlds—universes—apart from the view that Judaism commands social action. If anything, Lurianic Kabbalah considered contemplative action to be the vehicle for repairing the spiritual world. Its goal is not to make the material world holy but to divest the spiritual world of its materiality so as to recreate olom ha-tikkun, a spiritually perfect world.

Unfortunately the modern notion of tikkun olam is too often used with only a passing reference to Judaism, if that. Some years ago New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in writing about the Iraq war told us that Tony Blair differed from George Bush in that Blair believed the war was an effort at tikkun olam. Even stranger, Republican commentator, Lloyd Green, has suggested that President Bush’s 2005 inaugural address was replete with references redolent of tikkun olam (although Bush never actually used the term.)

I suppose the argument is that Blair and Bush acted from religious motives and that if efforts at social betterment are faith-based that makes them tikkun olam. That was the rationale of the Yeshiva University students who spent their winter break in Thailand building a school and raising awareness about HIV/AIDS thus “learning Jewish values on tikkun olam.”

But what if they went to Thailand just to build a better world? Is that still tikkun olam? Many liberals would say yes, using tikkun olam to delineate any and every liberal cause, whatever the motive or rationale behind it. In this view, Marxists who seek a secular utopia or any effort at all to do “good” would fall under the tikkun olam category.

Other religions have faced this challenge. Catholic priests in Latin America developed the concept of “liberation theology” by which religious Catholics gave approbation to radical Marxist revolutionaries who were seeking to improve the lot of the poor. But the Vatican rejected that approach.

In Judaism social action is a means of drawing closer to God and fulfilling His will. Thus an authentic Jewish position will not separate social action from religion. Social action on its own is a positive thing, but it is not Judaism. And we should not say it is.

Unfortunately, tikkun olam “liberal style,” seemingly ignores social action toward the Jewish poor and the welfare of Israel and has come to mean working for universal rather than on specific Jewish concerns. This distinction is also incorrect.

Jews do have a responsibility to seek a better world. We are commanded to engage in tzedakah (justice and righteousness) and gemilut chasadim (acts of loving kindness.) And indeed Jewish philosophers like Hermann Cohen have underscored that creating a more ethical society is Judiasm’s specific religious mission. But this universal mission need not be accomplished at the expense of significantly Jewish concerns.

We must remember that Chesed is perfecting the world one small step at a time—bringing the mail to your sick neighbor, dealing kindly wit h difficult colleagues, visiting the sick. Further we ought not forget that if we are going to repair the world we can only do so if we start with ourselves. And therein lies the real challenge.

Marshall Breger is a professor of law at the Catholic University of America.