10-18-2020, 06:44 AM
I don't think that תִּקּוּן עוֹלָם tiqqûn ʿôlām is a foreign concept, since it's clear that every moral system aims at making the world a better place.
The truly foreign concept is that of שְׁבִירַת הַכֵּלִים šəḇîraṯ hakkēlîm or the whole idea of emanation and the effusion of light from God's own being, etc. In other words, while tikkun is simply a natural response to a broken world, the precursors for that tikkun are what transports this concept into something metaphysical that you either accept or don't.
The idea is that the first creative act was God drawing himself in in order to create space within which to fashion the creation. This self-contraction is called צִמְצוּם ṣimṣûm in Hebrew. After that, the vessels (the worlds themselves) were created to contain the light that was to come forth from God, and the pathways through which the light would travel. Once the light came forth ("let there be light"), it was so powerful that it broke the vessels that were intended to contain it. The slivers of those vessels are what unclean spirits came from. They are called קְלִפּוֹת qəlippôṯ, and the sparks of light that remain from the original light are called נְצִיצוֹת nəṣîṣôṯ. The goal of tikkun olam is to repair the vessels so that they can contain the light that they were intended to possess.
As I said, you either believe that or you don't (and the system of thought gets more complicated than that, of course), but the tikkun itself fits in with the idea of making the world a better place.
The truly foreign concept is that of שְׁבִירַת הַכֵּלִים šəḇîraṯ hakkēlîm or the whole idea of emanation and the effusion of light from God's own being, etc. In other words, while tikkun is simply a natural response to a broken world, the precursors for that tikkun are what transports this concept into something metaphysical that you either accept or don't.
The idea is that the first creative act was God drawing himself in in order to create space within which to fashion the creation. This self-contraction is called צִמְצוּם ṣimṣûm in Hebrew. After that, the vessels (the worlds themselves) were created to contain the light that was to come forth from God, and the pathways through which the light would travel. Once the light came forth ("let there be light"), it was so powerful that it broke the vessels that were intended to contain it. The slivers of those vessels are what unclean spirits came from. They are called קְלִפּוֹת qəlippôṯ, and the sparks of light that remain from the original light are called נְצִיצוֹת nəṣîṣôṯ. The goal of tikkun olam is to repair the vessels so that they can contain the light that they were intended to possess.
As I said, you either believe that or you don't (and the system of thought gets more complicated than that, of course), but the tikkun itself fits in with the idea of making the world a better place.