The Hebrew phrase tikkun olam means "world repair." The most modern and broadly understood notion of tikkun olam is that of "repairing the world" through human actions. Its humans responsibility to change, improve, and fix its earthly surroundings. It implies that each person has a hand in working towards the betterment of his or her own existence as well as the lives of future generations. Tikkun olam forces people to take ownership of their world. It is them, not God, who will bring the world back to its original state of holiness. More simply, it is important for Jews to participate in repairing the world by participating in the process without their stake in the improvement of their environment, injustice and evil will continue to exist.
In reference to individual acts of repair, the phrase “tikkun olam” figures prominently in the…show more content… It literally means speaking of fixing what is broken in our society. On MyJewishLearning.com, it is written that tikkun olam "appears to respond to a profound sense of deep rupture in the universe, which speaks as much to the post-Holocaust era as it did in the wake of the expulsion from Spain and other medieval Jewish disasters."
Ultimately tikkun olam repairs not only what is broken in the world but also what is broken in God. It is difficult theologically to consider what it means for part of God to be broken, after all God is perfect, right? However, Jewish tradition allows for us to constantly question and wrestle with God, to have the confidence and believe in oneself. Perhaps one way to understand the idea of a broken God is to imagine that it is God's reflection in the world which is broken. It is as if the shards scattered throughout the world are fragments of a sacred mirror which reflects the Creator.Whether our objective in the end is to repair God's Image in the world, or to repair God's Image in ourselves, remain united in our pursuit of tikkun