Dr. Shimshon Hamerman is Head of School of Solomon Schechter Academy in Montreal, Canada.

A brief background

The expression Tikkun olam sounds almost poetic and it is not surprising that it was so universally accepted and adopted by Federations and fund raising establishments. After all, if God is borei olam, the Creator of the world, then I can become His assistant by performing acts of tikkun olam, repairing God’s world by donating to a cause. Wow! I am God’s assistant. Status by association. It is almost Divine.

Where did this concept come from and how did it evolve? We know that the concept was used in Massekhet Gittin (4:2) where the Talmud forbids the giving of a get under certain conditions so that if the get is improper and the woman marries someone else, her children should not be considered mamzerim. The Talmud cites the reason or the purpose for this preventative measure as for tikkun olam. Namely, it is for the betterment of the world.

We also meet a derivative of this expression in the Aleinu prayer with the words letaken olam bemalkhut Shaddai, to repair the world with the Kingdom of God. This use of the expression begins to move it to a moralistic ground where we perform acts of goodness through which we enhance and repair God’s world.

As we move to the more modern period, the expression has taken on yet another connotation as we repair God’s world not through the performance of mitzvot (as in, religious commandments), but instead through social consciousness by fighting hunger, disease, giving charity and providing aid to victims of natural catastrophes. While this can mean living an upright life, it does not necessarily indicate spirituality or Godliness. Doing these acts of Tikkun Olam may provide one with the “feel good” sensation even if they are distant from mitzvot and malkhut Shaddai, and should not be confused with the Lurianic conception of Tikkun Olam which refers to human efforts to repair our earthly existence through impacting on the upper spheres of the spiritual universe.

Tikkun Olam in the school

It is almost axiomatic that Jewish day schools teach children to give tzedakah. More than to raise a donation, our task is to raise a donor. We need to inculcate the value of tzedakah and the responsibility for the underprivileged. Do schools make a distinction between tzedakah and Tikkun Olam? I suspect that most schools, like ours, teach their students to do what is right and to perform acts of social justice and social consciousness. I also assume that most schools do not distinguish between Tikkun Olam and acts of loving kindness, but they do provide students with multiple opportunities to learn and to perform acts of tzedakah, hesed and Tikkun Olam. I would certainly hope all of those activities are a part of letaken olam bemalkhut Shaddai, in which the mitzvah, the benefit to society, and the spiritual dimension are integrated.

Can students associate their tzedakah projects or maasim tovim projects as acts of Tikkun Olam? Is it important that they should? I suspect that in schools where students are helped to make such an association, students do link the two concepts. Given the “currency” Tikkun Olam has assumed in the Jewish world, schools should take the extra step in their teaching to help students make this association even if there is a leap from the original meaning of the concept to its present use. An argument can be made that in lower classes students should learn to do Tikkun Olam projects and in older grades they can learn meanings and definitions.

Robert Coles has noted that regardless of their cultural and religious background, children feel a profound desire to understand the universe. Furthermore, children, often combining spiritual musings with ethical concerns – for example, wondering why there is injustice in the world – often express a wish to influence the entire universe in an effort to improve the world (italics mine). If Coles is correct and students have an innate drive to “improve the world,” then schools can capitalize on that drive not only through multiple tzedakah and hesed projects but through direct teaching of both needs and obligations to participate in such projects.

Education is not an event but a process. The meaning of Tikkun Olam has clearly evolved and has been transformed from its original meaning and intent. The spiritual dimension that the term took on in Lurianic Kabbalah may have lost its spirituality in our time. Nonetheless, the notion of creating a better world and the notion of students learning to behave with a responsibility towards the world has much merit. The debate of the responsibility of Jewish day schools to teach students the obligation towards the entire world or to take care of their own first (what in Rabbinic terminology is called aniyei irkha kodmim, that the poor of one’s own city take precedence) is one that will not be resolved here. However, in the view of this writer, teaching students about tzedakah and Tikkun Olam has to be done through many opportunities of putting theory into practice and concepts into action. This drives the focus in our school – and probably in many other day schools – to provide multiple opportunities to do acts of tzedakah, hesed and Tikkun Olam. It is through such projects that our schools will create future generations that will strive to letaken olam bemalkhut Shaddai.

Integrating Tikkun Olam into the curriculum

The Tal Am Hebrew language program incorporates many values linked to Tikkun Olam (see Sidebar 1). This dovetails nicely with our Torah curriculum. The Torah curriculum asks children to emulate the Biblical Heroes or to put mitzvot into actions. Whether hakhnassat orhim (hospitality) as with Abraham or performing the mitzvot of Parashat Kedoshim, children do it naturally. They like to do good and to be seen to be good by their role models and authority figures. We channel their efforts and plan for them to do activities of Tikkun Olam. The grade six secular studies teachers entrust students with creating and doing their own Tikkun Olam projects – these ranged from raising funds for a seeing dog for a blind person, book sales, raffles and skate-a-thons. They included volunteering and bringing food to a soup kitchen and bringing joy for seniors by visiting them and decorating their residence for Hanukkah. (See Sidebar 2 for more examples.)

I believe that if students are taught that these activities are meaningful and make for a better world, they see their actions as influencing Tikkun Olam and making a better world a la Robert Coles. Surely, students can participate in acts of hesed, tzedakah and Tikkun Olam without knowing or making a distinction between them. Some students may well participate in acts of loving kindness without thinking of Tikkun Olam. Is that wrong?

References

Coles, Robert. The Spiritual Life of Children. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.