(14) Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, but thou shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD. (15) Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor favour the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. (16) Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.
(ג) אין אלמנה נפרעת מנכסי יתומים אלא בשבועה. נמנעו מלהשביעה, התקין רבן גמליאל הזקן שתהא נודרת ליתומים כל מה שירצו, וגובה כתבתה. העדים חותמים על הגט, מפני תקון העולם. הלל התקין פרוזבול מפני תקון העולם.
(3) A widow may only collect [the debt owed from her ketubah, monetary settlement payable to a married woman upon divorce or the death of her husband] from the property of orphans by [taking] an oath. They stopped imposing an oath; Rabban Gamliel the Elder enacted that she may make a vow with regard to whatever they desire, and collects her ketubah. Witnesses sign on a bill of divorce, due to Tikkun HaOlam. Hillel instituted the prosbul [a court-issued exemption from the Sabbatical year cancellation of a personal loan] due to Tikkun HaOlam.
(ט) המוכר את עצמו ואת בניו לגוי אין פודין אותו, אבל פודין את הבנים לאחר מיתת אביהן. המוכר שדהו לגוי וחזר ולקחה ממנו (ישראל), הלוקח מביא ממנו בכורים, מפני תקון העולם.
(9) [With regard to] one who sells himself and his children to a non-Jew, we do not redeem him. But we redeem the children after the death of their father. [With regard to] one who sells his field to a non-Jew, and a Jew buys it back from him, the buyer brings the first fruits from it, due to Tikkun HaOlam.
ת"ר מפרנסים עניי נכרים עם עניי ישראל ומבקרין חולי נכרים עם חולי ישראל וקוברין מתי נכרים עם מתי ישראל מפני דרכי שלום:
Our rabbis taught: We provide for the gentiles' poor with Israel's poor, we visit gentiles' sick with Israel's sick, and we bury the gentiles' dead with Israel's dead, due to the ways of peace.
(ז) מפרנסין ומכסין עניי עכו"ם עם עניי ישראל מפני דרכי שלום ועני המחזר על הפתחים אין נזקקין לו למתנה מרובה אבל נותנין לו מתנה מועטת ואסור להחזיר את העני ששאל ריקם ואפילו אתה נותן לו גרוגרת אחת שנאמר אל ישוב דך נכלם.
We provide sustenance and clothing for the poor of the gentiles together with the poor of the Jewish people as an expression of the ways of peace.
When a poor person begs from door to door, we do not give him a large gift. Instead, we give him a small gift. It is forbidden to turn away a poor person who asks [for charity] empty-handed. Even giving him one fig [is sufficient], as [Psalms 74:21]: "Let not the dejected turn away in shame."
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from Howard Schwartz, "How the Ari Created a Myth and Transformed Judaism"
Tikkun, March 11, 2011 (http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/how-the-ari-created-a-myth-and-transformed-judaism)
For many modern Jews, the term tikkun olam (repairing the world) has become a code-phrase synonymous with social and environmental action. It is linked to a call for healing the ills of the world. Indeed, tikkun olam has become the defining purpose of much of modern Jewish life. What many of those who use this term do not know is that this idea is rooted in the last great myth infused into Jewish tradition, a cosmological myth created in the sixteenth century by the great Jewish mystic, Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed, known as the Ari (1534-1572). Here the term “myth” refers to a people’s sacred stories about origins, deities, ancestors and heroes.
The Myth of the Shattering of the Vessels
How is it that a concept rooted in medieval Jewish mysticism has so endeared itself to contemporary Jews? In order to understand this unlikely development, let us first consider the myth itself, known as “The Shattering of the Vessels” (shevirat ha-kelim).
"Ten holy vessels came forth, each filled with primordial light." Credit: Creative Commons/lootdujour.
At the beginning of time, God’s presence filled the universe. When God decided to bring this world into being, to make room for creation, He first drew in His breath, contracting Himself. From that contraction darkness was created. And when God said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), the light that came into being filled the darkness, and ten holy vessels came forth, each filled with primordial light.
In this way God sent forth those ten vessels, like a fleet of ships, each carrying its cargo of light. Had they all arrived intact, the world would have been perfect. But the vessels were too fragile to contain such a powerful, divine light. They broke open, split asunder, and all the holy sparks were scattered like sand, like seeds, like stars. Those sparks fell everywhere, but more fell on the Holy Land than anywhere else.
That is why we were created — to gather the sparks, no matter where they are hidden. God created the world so that the descendents of Jacob could raise up the holy sparks. That is why there have been so many exiles — to release the holy sparks from the servitude of captivity. In this way the Jewish people will sift all the holy sparks from the four corners of the earth.
And when enough holy sparks have been gathered, the broken vessels will be restored, and tikkun olam,the repair of the world, awaited so long, will finally be complete. Therefore it should be the aim of everyone to raise these sparks from wherever they are imprisoned and to elevate them to holiness by the power of their soul...
...There is a famous Hasidic tale, “Lighting a Fire,” about a ritual the Baal Shem Tov performed out in a forest, lighting a fire and reciting a prayer he created for that occasion, which saved the people in a time of great danger. Subsequent generations lost the details of that ritual and the place it had been performed and the words of the prayer, but they still had the story, and that was enough. Most of us are only dimly aware of the arcane kabbalistic meaning of the Ari’s cosmology, of the theory that both heaven and earth are in need of repair, and that we must seek out and raise up the holy sparks that will make it possible for us restore the worlds above and below. But we have retained the knowledge that it is incumbent on us to take responsibility for the world we inhabit, and that we must do all that we can to repair it, for ourselves and our children and future generations. And, like the Hasidic tale of the lost ritual, what we have retained of the meaning of tikkun olam is enough.