Can Someone Please Explain The Meaning Of "Tikkun Olam"

[Lisa]

I see it being thrown around constantly by the liberal lefty self hating Jews.  They say it means "repairing the world."  So what can Torah true Jews do to take back that expression?  What's a REAL example of tikkun olam?

Thanks.

[mord]

It's too do good in the world but   Lisa it has been hijacked by leftists  who only do evil

[Tzvi Ben Roshel1]

Lisa- doing mitzvot. Technically they are correct in the literal definition of it, but tactically many times they dont do it the correct way (do it according to there understanding and not according to how G-d has commanded it).

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

Quite ironic that the people most vocally carrying on about Tikkun olam and turning it into some sort of slogan for the democratic party, liberalism, and other vapid heresies, are the very people who seek to abrogate the mitzvoth c''v (and openly advocate such evil stupidity).

[Tzvi Ben Roshel1]

Lisa next time you meet a Jew or Jewess who says Tikkun Olam to you, you ask them what does that mean? And ask where does it come from? (I assume they will say from Judaism), so you say that Judaism comes from G-d, thus it is G-d who defined Tikkun Olam. Tell them next (not necessarily aggressivly or argummentivly) that since G-d defines how to make the tikkunim to the world, to the individual and actually to all the world's then why aren't they doing the Tikkun olam the proper way by following the way G-d has defined it? (They will say, but we are- look we are voluntering for this or that), and you can say that the proper way in doing what is right is how G-d defines what is right and wrong, they can start by learning Torah to know what is right and wrong to be done (and by the way, is one of the biggest Tikkun Olam that we can do becuase each word of Torah is = to all the Mitzvot combined). - Of-course you can show them different good sites to check out- (I suggest Rav Mizrachi first- definitly will bother the conscious at first and make one have it stay in the mind long time that will then encourage furthus investigation and then G-d willing to the true Tikkun).

[schrodinger's cat]

It's too do good in the world but   Lisa it has been hijacked by leftists  who only do evil

[Roadwarrior]

It's too do good in the world but   Lisa it has been hijacked by leftists  who only do evil

I was about to post "Tikkun" Michael Lerner's magazine ....your post popped up
"Tikkun" is a an example how the left has adopted(pre-emtped) the concept

[mord]

 

[Tzvi Ben Roshel1]

Guys I know it is tempting, but instead of focusing on the negative and the negativity, it would be better to focus on 2 things- 1- how do you do YOUR Tikkun(im), and 2- How do you get these people that have been taken by the other side to turn around and go on the correct path?

[Lisa]

Right wing, Torah true Jews need to take back the term Tikkun Olam.  It's time we stopped letting the leftist Michael Lerner types define it to the world. 

[muman613]

Tikkun Olam means "Rectifying the World". It is a Kabbalistic Concept.

Here are some sites I have found which explain this concept:

http://www.ou.org/public/Publib/tikkun.htm

ORTHODOXY’S RESPONSIBILITY TO PERFECT G-D’S WORLD

JONATHAN SACKS
Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth

Delivered at the Orthodox Union West Coast Convention
December 1997 – Kislev 5758

Tonight I have been asked to address a very difficult subject, a subject in fact that I have not spoken about before: Tikkun Olam -- perfecting, preparing or repairing the world-- which I take to mean what part should we take as Jews, specifically what part should we play as Orthodox Jews, in the wider concerns of the society in which we live.  I think that is an important question, perhaps even in a strange sense the most important question facing Jewish life today.  However, in order to even begin I must engage you in a series of quite difficult propositions.  I ask you to join me in a difficult intellectual journey.

I want to begin with a fundamental problem, one that I really have not seen spoken about or written about anywhere.  There are certain questions in Jewish life which in order to answer, what do you do? You open a book; either a Shulkhan Arukh, or Responsa literature or the Talmud and you elicit a ruling from the sources.  Why is that so?  The reason is that those issues never change.  Whether the issues regard shabbat, kashrut, taharat mishpacha, it makes no difference if you asked the question in 1897, 1997 or 2097.  The issues never change, and the answers never change.  I call this kind of Torah by a very ancient name, and that is “Torat Kohanim” because the kohen, the priest,  was the first role model in Jewish history of the enduring structure of kedusha;  the eternity in the midst of time. Torah as chayei olam -- eternal life-- in the midst of chayei sha’ah -- finite life.  That is one kind of Torah all of us are familiar with.  It is for most of us all the Torah that there is.   

However, there is another kind of Torah as well.  It is much more rare, and the truth is that it is much more rarely needed; I call it “Torat Nivi’im” -- Torah not of the priest but of the navi, the prophet.  While a kohen represents eternity, a navi represents history.  We know that the prophets were the first people in all of civilization and certainly the greatest of all time to see G-d in history.  They saw history itself as a coherent narrative; a story with a beginning, middle and end, a journey through time with a destination.  Kohanim were sensitive to the things in Judaism which never change; while prophets were sensitive to things which do change - things in which today’s challenge are different then the day before.  Why?  Because we are on a journey.  The destination never changes but we move, and where we are today is not necessarily where we were yesterday so each day has a new challenge.  That is Torat Nivi’im; it needs a special kind of sensibility to deal with questions of that kind.

Tikkun Olam, perfecting the world, sounds like a big subject.  It is a big subject. However, if you look at the Shulkhan Arukh and the Responsa, you see that tikkun olam occupies a surprisingly limited space.  There is not much there about this subject.  That is because the guide to dealing with such dynamic changes must be sought not in Torat Kohanim but in Torat Nivi’im.  One ought not look in the literature of halakha, of eternity, instead we must review the literature of the aggadah, which, I would say, is the literature of Jewish history seen through the eyes of faith; of Jewish reflection on the challenges of specific moments.  Tikkun Olam is a subject we will only understand, especially as Orthodox Jews, if we are prepared to use our historical imagination and sensibility.   So I want to begin with an exercise in historical imagination.  Let us begin by seeing what is happening now in the perspective of the Jewish journey through time.

Let me begin with, Genesis, the book of our beginnings, the book of our destiny.  What are the themes of Sefer Beresheit?  There are two themes which predominate the narrative of Genesis.  The first is the promise of a land.  The first words to Abraham from G-d are “lech licha me’artzecha, me’moladitcha, me’bayt avecha el ha’aretz asher ereka.”[1] Again and again.  Go to the land; I will give you the land. There is the promise of the land of Israel to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, again and again the promise turned out to be unbelievably difficult.  Abraham at the end of his life has to even struggle to buy a burial place for Sarah.[2]  Isaac, who never left Israel, has to contend with the Philistines over the wells he dug.[3]  Jacob wants a little plot of land to pitch his tent and has to buy it for an inflated price.[4]  Even the Torah ends with Israelites still not having entered and taken possession of the land of Israel, with that incredibly moving, poignant scene of Moses seeing the land from afar and being told  “v’shama lo ta’avor”[5] - you will not yourself be able to enter.  So there is the promise of the land, but it is a difficult promise. 

...

Torah.org provides a good answer to this question @ http://www.torah.org/qanda/seequanda.php?id=309

What does Tikkun Olam mean?

The halachic concept of Tikkun Olam is first mentioned in the Mishnah (Gittin, Chs. 4-5) in relation to Takkanos (Rabbinic ordinances) that were made for the good of society. The phrase "le-takken olam" also occurs in the Alenu prayer, where it refers to the improvements that will be made in the world in the Messianic age. The term Tikkun Olam is used nowadays in reference to the idea that the Jews have responsibilities to society at large. Various aspects of this idea are discussed in depth in the book Tikkun Olam, published in 1997 by Jason Aronson (Northdale, NJ), which contains papers presented at a symposium held on March 13-14, 1994 in New York.

Here is a Kabbalistic explanation @ http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/361891/jewish/Tikkun-HaMiddot.htm

Tikkun HaMiddot

Every Jew is a complex tale of two souls. As previously explained, a person is composite of a Nefesh Elokit and a Nefesh HaBehamit. Their on-going struggle and oscillation between heaven and earth, the soul and body, and the spiritual and material is the epicenter of the purpose of creation, which is to create a Dirah BeTachtonim (dwelling for G-d in the lowest of all worlds). In human terms, this means making an abode within this “two-souled” character, brokering a peace between the two parties, so that harmoniously they may together fulfill the purpose for which they have been created.

This idea is expressed by our Sages when they stated that the Torah has been given in order to make peace in the world.

Torah is elsewhere defined as “power” and “salvation” in the sense that Torah gives the person the ability to overcome his baser nature, and the Talmud states that if one meets one’s own evil inclination then “drag him to the house of study.” Would it not be for the fact that G-d helps us overcome the Evil Inclination we would never have the ability to do so.

Armed with Torah, a person can wage war against his darker nature, first subduing and then transforming and channeling its power. The Nefesh HaBehamit can be compared to an ox; it is coarse and animalistic. Yet it has powers to be extremely constructive if channeled in the correct way. Torah is the yoke that harnesses those powers and puts them into Divine service.

The Talmud speaks of the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination. Hassidism teaches that the Good Inclination is the intellectual faculty of the Nefesh Elokit and the Evil Inclination is the Emotions of the Nefesh HaBehamit. All negative character traits stem from the Emotions of the Nefesh HaBehamit. The intellect of the Nefesh HaBehamit just serves as a server to its Emotions, the mind finds a way to fulfill the desire. Take for example the emotion of Chessed. In the Nefesh Elokit, the Sefirah of Chessed represents the soul’s love for G-d. In the Nefesh HaBehamit it is the capacity to love the material. This love can degenerate into lust and can be very destructive. We have already explained that not everyone has the ability to totally transform and sublimate the Emotions of the Nefesh HaBehamit like the Tzaddikim. The Benoni will always have the struggle and it is for that purpose that he has been created. Knowing how powerful the Evil Inclination can be how is one to bridle the Emotions of the Nefesh HaBehamit?

...

I hope that this begins to answer the simple question 'What is Tikkun Olam"... The bigger question about whether the liberals are misusing the term 'tikkun olam' for some of their causes is beyond me. I know that the liberal organization Tikkun Olam is off it's rocker and I read some of their material and it almost caused me to puke {worse than eating a ham sandwich}. I don't consider their concern for poor Palistinkians on Yom Kippur is well placed.

[DownwithIslam]

The kike Richard Silverstein is a big user of this word. Its incredible how someone like him who hates judaism so much, takes a jewish concept and perverts it.

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

The kike Richard Silverstein is a big user of this word. Its incredible how someone like him who hates judaism so much, takes a jewish concept and perverts it.

Don't forget that [censored] Silverstein (ys"vz) is a passive homosexual. For real.

[q_q_]

I see it being thrown around constantly by the liberal lefty self hating Jews.  They say it means "repairing the world."  So what can Torah true Jews do to take back that expression?  What's a REAL example of tikkun olam?

Thanks.

It means Fixing the world

So following jewish commandments, man-man and man-G-d.

Liberals just pretend it means Man-man.