Jewish Social Justice Activists: You are doing Mitzvot!

Jewish Social Justice Activists: You are doing Mitzvot!

Supporting Israel, helping the Jewish poor, funding Jewish day school: there are an infinite number of Jewish concerns and needs today. How can one justify giving time to broader universalistic social justice issues?

Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, the first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of pre-state Israel, wrote:

There are some righteous individuals who are very great and powerful, who cannot limit themselves to Keneset Yisrael (the Jewish community) alone, and they are always concerned for the good of the entire world…These tzaddikim (righteous people) cannot be nationalists in the external sense of the term because they cannot stand any hatred, or iniquity, or limitation of good and mercy, and they are good to all, as the attributes of the Holy Blessed One for He is good to all His compassion is over all of His works, (Orot HaKodesh 3:349).

There are some who will mostly give their holy energy to their family and others who will prioritize building the Jewish community and Israel with all of their might. These are wonderful and necessary endeavors. But Rav Kook, as a pluralist very attuned to the diversity and complexity of souls, teaches that there are others who cannot remain parochial but need to go out beyond the Jewish community and that these are righteous individuals.

Sadly, I have met too many Jewish social justice leaders who feel marginalized and think of themselves as “bad Jews.” The opposite is true! Those dedicating themselves to supporting the poor, sick, beaten, and alienated are model Jews! Abraham was “chosen” precisely because he was committed to “tzedakah u’mishpat” (pursuing justice).

Lurianic Kabbalah teaches that our role in this world is to find hidden sparks, liberate them from their evil shells (klipot), and elevate these holy sparks. Social justice activists who go out to support the most vulnerable are doing just this.

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Executive Director of the Valley Beit Midrash, the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Founder and CEO of The Shamayim V’Aretz Institute and the author of seven books on Jewish ethics.  Newsweek named Rav Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America.”