Today anti Zionist  Jews and other liberal Jews wrap themselves in “ tikkun olam” (“  repair the world”) credulously believing that they have wrapped themselves in historic Judaism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Dismissing Jewish law and replacing it  with a universalist “ social justice” agenda,  many of these “repair the world” Jews are even able to contort themselves into supporting Hamas whose unrevoked charter in Article 7 requires every supporter of Hamas to murder every Jew on earth.

As Iranian refugee Dr. Sheila Nazarian writes:

“ This modern usage is a bastardization of a term with spiritual roots that calls for acts of prayer, religious ritual and meditation. It also misunderstands the original intended scope of the term which was meant to refer to highly specific individual instances and adjustments to how existing rules were applied to Jewish society,  not to a broad expansion of what Jews must do to “ repair the world”.

“But much more importantly, the prevalence of this silly contemporary usage has advanced an equally silly mainstream Jewish perspective, according to which the needs and self- interest of our community are overlooked in favor of an unquestioned commitment to politics that do not serve and in many instances actively reject us”. (“ American Jews Get ‘ Tikkun Olum’ All Wrong. How Can You Repair The World If Your Own House is Falling Apart?”, Dr. Sheila Nazarian, Jewish News Syndicate, 8/5/24).

Similarly Brian Sherwin, Distinguished Service Professor and Vice President Emeritus at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies at Chicago, Illinois supports Dr. Nazarian’s position with exhaustive historic details:

“Reform Leader and social activist Eugene J. Lipman concluded that ‘ none of the material adduced here could serve to bring me to the conclusion that the Talmudic sages were speaking of all humanity...( The referent here relates only to ) The Jewish community”.

“In her 1984 PhD dissertation “ Tikkun Olam in early Rabbinic Literature” submitted at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Sagit Mor examines the earliest appearance of the term in Hebrew Literature, i.e. in” ‘ Mishnah Gittin 4:1-5:3’.

“According to Mor, the earliest appearance of the term ‘olam’ refers to ‘Jewish culture and civilization ‘ rather than to either universal humankind or the natural world. It is linked here to the commandment ‘ be fruitful and multiply( Gen 1:28 )’ within the context of established Jewish norms....

“Like Mor, Lipman notes that the earliest use of the term is related to Jewish family matters because ‘ marriage and family were the matrix of Jewish communal life’.

That current usage of tikkun olam is not only a departure from, but an outright rejection, distortion and even a repudiation of its original meaning is eminently clear in contemporary attempts to identify the term within universalistic secular “progressive” causes zero population growth, abortion on demand and gay marriage. As we have seen the term was initially promulgated to advocate Jewish propagation within the context of Jewish legal norms and the nuclear family  as well as for the purpose of maintaining and promulgating Jewish civilization.

Further  those who try to force the round peg of kabbalistic Judaism into the square hole of today’s tikkun olam ignore the fact that ...” conspicuously absent from many discussions of tikkun olam are precisely those activities that are critical to kabbalists: observance of Jewish law; observance of the Commandments; cultivation of moral virtues such as humility, ascetic practices, earnest repentance and observance of Jewish holy days. It also  may be surprising that contemporary advocates of tikkun olam offer it incorrectly as a religious commandment, as a part of Jewish law, as an expression of “ prophetic” or biblical Judaism, although none of these is the case.”

Finally some have tried  to bootstrap their 

social justice distortion of tikkun olam to the ALEINU prayer. This effort fails for two reasons. The first paragraph of the ALEINU prayer is particularistic distinguishing the Jewish people from all other people and touting Jewish exceptionalism -- something totally politically incorrect for the Left.

While the second paragraph is universalistic , it is also theological and eschalogical -- emphasizing the primacy of G-D over man -- again a view anathama to the Left.

In light of the endless distortions of Judaism inherent in the current usage of tikkun olam, one should remember the wisdom of Abraham Joshua Heschel as cited by Professor Sherwin:

“We may accept it or reject it ( i.e. Judaism) but we should not distort it”.

See” Tikkun Olam: A Case of Semantic Displacement”, Byron Sherwin, 11/4/14, “ Jewish Political Studies Review, Volume 25, Numbers 3-4, Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs(JCFA).

Richard Sherman, POB 934853, Margate, Florida 33093( 646)267-7904.