fbpx

Tikkun olam doesn’t repair the world

For most Jews who care about Judaism, the moral essence of Judaism — indeed its ultimate purpose — is tikkun olam, literally meaning “repairing the world.”
[additional-authors]
June 3, 2015

For most Jews who care about Judaism, the moral essence of Judaism — indeed its ultimate purpose — is tikkun olam, literally meaning “repairing the world.”

For Jews who regularly use the term, it almost always refers to taking what are known as “progressive” social positions.

Now, there is no question that Judaism wishes to see the world repaired. But this wish is not exclusive to Judaism — quite the contrary. 

What social doctrine hasn’t wanted to see the world repaired? 

To cite only the most egregious post World War II-examples — communism and Islamism — virtually every one of their leaders, no matter how vicious, tyrannical and genocidal, believed, or talked themselves into believing, that their doctrine would repair the world. 

Tikkun olam, therefore, is morally meaningless in and of itself. 

The only question that matters is, how do you intend to repair the world? 

This is not unique to tikkun olam. The same logic holds true even with regard to belief in God. We know essentially nothing of a person’s values merely by knowing that the person believes in God. The Spanish Inquisition’s Torquemada believed in God, as do the heads of Islamic terror groups. So, for that matter, did Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and Joseph Smith.

What your God demands is one of many questions we need answered in order to ascertain whether a belief in God is likely to lead to good or evil.

Judaism teaches that the way to a better world is through moral improvement of the individual — through each person doing battle with his own moral defects. Of course, in evil societies such as fascist, communist and Islamist tyrannies, the individual must be preoccupied with battling outside forces. Everywhere else, however, certainly in a free and decent country such as America, the greatest battle of the individual must be with inside forces — his or her own flawed character and moral defects. 

Jews who stress that the way to a better America is to overcome America’s moral defects (real and/or perceived) believe that they are acting in accordance with Judaism. But they are usually not. Because the Jewish way to make a better world is through the laborious process of changing people one by one by one. 

This lesson must be passed be on to each new generation. If it isn’t, even the best society will begin to rapidly devolve, which is what most religious Jews and Christians believe has been happening to America since the 1960s. 

Progressive ideologies do not focus on individual character development. Rather, they have always and everywhere focused on social revolution. The most revealing statement of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama was made just days before the 2008 election. 

“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” he told a large, rapturous audience.

Jews who understand Judaism’s modus operandi not only have no interest in fundamentally transforming the United States, they are opposed to doing so. Fundamentally transforming any but the worst society — not to mention transforming what is probably the most decent society in history — can only make the society worse. America must be improved, but not transformed, let alone fundamentally transformed.

America’s Founding Fathers — men steeped in Old Testament theology — all understood that the transformation that every generation must work on is the moral transformation of each citizen. Thus, character development was at the core of both child rearing and of young people’s education at school. 

As John Adams said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

And in the words of Benjamin Franklin: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” 

But too many Jews and non-Jews are not preoccupied with producing individually virtuous children and citizens. In schools, children from kindergarten through grade 12 are not given character education but are taught to focus on social issues — to fight not their own natures, but America’s alleged sexism, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia and carbon footprint. And when they get to college, America’s young people are taught to also fight such things as “white privilege” and the “rape culture” on their campuses.

At the same time, as a professor of philosophy recently wrote in The New York Times, fewer and fewer young Americans believe that there are any moral truths.

As a result of all this, we are producing vast numbers of Americans who are passionate about tikkun olam but cheat on tests at unprecedentedly high levels.

The age-old wisdom embraced by Judaism remains as true as ever — before we fix society, we must first work on fixing ourselves, the individuals who make up society.


Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host (AM 870 in Los Angeles) and founder of PragerUniversity.com.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Print Issue: Got College? | Mar 29, 2024

With the alarming rise in antisemitism across many college campuses, choosing where to apply has become more complicated for Jewish high school seniors. Some are even looking at Israel.

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.