Tikkun Olam

It helps both God and the world. Rabbi Jackie Tabick traces the background to this concept of healing

by Jackie Tabick 26th November 2009

Tikkun Olam has become the new buzz word for the Jewish community… or at least, for the less orthodox groupings it has. Certainly, our own community has adopted it as one of our main themes for the year. What does it mean? Well the root t-k-n means something like ‘to make straight, right or firm, or prepare, set in order, mend or repair.’ And the word Olam means ‘world, university or eternity’. It is usually translated these days as ‘Repairing the world’, but from the history of the use of the expression, we can see that there are deeper nuances within the phrase other than ‘just’ the social justice meanings commonly associated with it today, especially among our young people.