To what extent is Tikkun Olam — fixing the world — at the heart of Judaism’s purpose? This question has been part of a major debate among American Jews. The Tikkun Olam crowd emphasizes the universalism of Judaism’s message. Ultimately, they say, we are all in it together. Judaism has a vision for humanity; healing the scourge of poverty and the threat of environmental devastation is an integral part of Judaism’s core.
Those who oppose the emphasis on Tikkun Olam argue that although the term is ancient, the broad meaning attributed to it today is a modern innovation. Jews, they say, should be focused on practicing and preserving the unique traditions and teachings of Judaism. Who else will do that if not us? They accuse some Jews of equating Tikkun Olam, and thus Judaism, with progressive politics — and abandoning Jewish particularity in the process.
I’m a card-carrying member of the Tikkun Olam camp. But I understand the anti-Tikkun perspective as well. The term itself has become vague and plastic; it can easily serve as a cover for ideologies and agendas that are not rooted in Judaism. As Jews, the more our thoughts and deeds on how to fix the world are rooted in our dazzling texts and outstanding thinkers that shine across our long history, the more original and compelling our contribution will be.
That’s why Tevel b’Tzedek, an Israel based organization dedicated to social and environmental justice that I founded, is beginning a series of videocasts exploring Tikkun Olam through the thoughts of major figures from throughout Judaism’s history. Our goal is to dive deep, to see how Judaism’s ethical imperatives were understood in many different eras and by many different thinkers. Here in the Jewish Journal, we’ll give you some of the highlights, along with a link to the videocast itself.
Our goal is to dive deep, to see how Judaism’s ethical imperatives were understood in many different eras and by many different thinkers
Each of our videocast episodes will feature a discussion with one of Judaism’s premier scholars and thinkers. The first is with Professor Art Green, one of the world’s leading scholars of Hasidism and Jewish Mysticism, and a theologian and thinker in his own right. In the videocast, Professor Green will be talking about several key Jewish teachers, all of whom emerged from Eastern European Orthodoxy, and all of whom are very close to his heart.
The first thinker is Hillel Zeitlin, the legendary Polish Jewish writer, spiritual teacher, and one of the founding figures, along with Martin Buber, of Neo-Hasidism. Zeitlin was haunted by the poverty and vulnerability of the great majority of Polish Jewry, which led him to create a model for a new kind of community, socialist and Hasidic at the same time. Zeitlin was murdered by the Nazis on a forced march to Treblinka, wearing Tallis, donning Tefilin, and carrying the book of the Zohar in his hand.
The second featured thinker is Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Heschel, the scion of a family of Hasidic rebbes, escaped Nazi-occupied Poland and came to the United States. There, he became one of the most renowned Jewish philosophers of the twentieth century and a significant figure in the antiwar and civil rights movement, marching arm-in-arm with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Professor Green was Heschel’s student at the Jewish Theological Seminary and intimately familiar with his thinking.
The third figure is Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi. Shalomi, who became a Hasid of the Lubavitcher rebbe, eventually left Chabad and Orthodoxy and is considered the father of Renewal Judaism. He also was a close friend and teacher of Professor Art. Reb Zalman, as he liked to be called, was one of the first Jewish teachers who put environmental concerns front and center in his spiritual teaching.
The fourth figure is Professor Art Green himself. For Professor Green, one of the most urgent tasks of Jewish thinkers today is to infuse our new knowledge of the origins of the cosmos and life with holy sparks. Professor Green’s lifelong study of Kabbalah and Hasidism has guided him to environmental activism. Inspired by Jewish tradition, Green says we need to find God again, within the new story that includes the big bang and evolution in order to save the world from ruin.
We invite you to watch.
Rabbi Micha Odenheimer is a writer and journalist and the founder of Tevel b’Tzedek, an Israeli organization working to address extreme poverty in the Global South.
