Core Jewish Values: Week #5-- Social Justice

Tikkun Olam-- Repair of the World

Likutei Moharan is the magnum opus of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810), and is a collection of his formal lessons.

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

Rabbi Yisrael ben Ze'ev Wolf Lipkin, also known as "Israel Salanter" or "Yisroel Salanter" (November 3, 1809, Zhagory – February 2, 1883, Königsberg), was the father of the Musar movement in Orthodox Judaism and a famed Rosh yeshiva and Talmudist. The epithet Salanter was added to his name since most of his schooling took place in Salant (now the Lithuanian town of Salantai).

In legal Mishnaic cases, we might translate mipnei tikkun ha'olam as "for the sake of the preservation of the system as a whole." Within the Mishnah, this phrase is invoked in response to situations in which a particular legal detail threatens to cause the breakdown of an entire system. Divorces of uncertain status may lead to adulterous marriages or... celibacy......Paying too much for religious objects or for the redemption of captives will result in an overall increase in prices and perhaps a higher incidence of kidnapping. Ignoring the... challenges of debt forgiveness may lead to a wholesale disregard for the institution of shmittah (the Sabbatical year). By invoking the concept of tikkun haolam, the Rabbis repair the flaw that endangers the stability of the system as a whole, and in doing so, they improve the system.

- R. Jill Jacobs, There Shall be No Needy (p. 35-36), 2009

In Kabbalah

For many modern Jews, the term tikkun olam (repairing the world) has become a code-phrase synonymous with social and environmental action... this idea is rooted in the last great myth infused into Jewish tradition... in the sixteenth century by... Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed, known as the Ari (1534-1572)... [called] “The Shattering of the Vessels” (shevirat ha-kelim).

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.

...The Ari explained that whenever the Torah was studied or one of the commandments of the law fulfilled, some of the holy sparks were raised up... Now, for the first time, the Ari proposed that there was a purpose to the mitzvot, the commandments, beyond serving God’s will. Studying the Torah, observing the law, healing the ills of the world, or performing good deeds all made it possible to gather the sparks, and thus fulfill the great mitzvah of tikkun olam.

- Prof. Howard Schwartz, "How the Ari Created a Myth and Transformed Judaism", Tikkun Magazine, 2011 http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/how-the-ari-created-a-myth-and-transformed-judaism​

It is... unbearable, to sit silently by while Jews, and now the general religious and secular communities, completely misuse and distort the term Tikkun Olam-- certainly not... out of any malice, but rather out of ignorance in the pursuit of virtuous goals and principles which may be applicable to general society and civilization but which have tragically become a poor substitute for authentic religious observance. This repair rhetoric has become an obsession, a catch-all credo. Everything today is Tikkun Olam... It is a senseless and meaningless misconception, its true meaning nothing like it is commonly used and purported to be.

It is not at all a centuries-old tradition, it is not a call to action, and it is not a commandment...Tikkun Olam does not even mean repairing the world in the sense of social justice. Nor in traditional sources is Tikkun Olam... even a direct human imperative or action, but rather one that is left in G-d’s hands.

We cannot, and are not instructed to, save the world, or even to repair it. Judaism teaches no such thing. Rather, we are instructed to conduct ourselves properly, to observe the Mitzvos... and in that way to contribute to society and civilization both by example and through practice and action.

For Jews those Mitzvos include not simply socially or politically correct precepts such as giving charity and engaging in political action, but also observance of the Sabbath, dietary restrictions (Kashrus), daily prayer, and other commandments... [some Jews] substitute the false panacea of... Tikkun Olam for the authenticity of true Judaism... to avoid their actual responsibilities as Jews to observe the Torah and the commandments.

... The only honest and authentic Jewish way to [engage in Tikkun Olam] is to encourage observance of the Torah across the entire spectrum of the Jewish Community. That in fact is actually what our responsibility is, nothing more and nothing less, and the rest is up to G-d...

- R. Yitzhak Aharon Korff, (Zvhil-Mezbuz Rebbe of Boston) "The fallacy, delusion and myth of Tikkun Olam,"Jewish Advocate of Boston, 2013 http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2013/6/3/the-fallacy-delusion-and-myth-of-tikkun-olam

Lo Ta’amod Al Dam Rei’echa –

Do Not Stand by the Blood of your Neighbor

Mishpat; Din-- Justice and Law as the basis for civil society

Tzedakah-- Philanthropic Giving

Donations from Ill-Gotten Gain

Elliot N. Dorff-- June, 2009

Responsum of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly

Full responsum available at: https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/assets/public/halakhah/teshuvot/20052010/Dorff_Donations%20of%20Ill-Gotten%20Gain.FINAL.062909.pdf

The Situation: Mr. and Mrs. Jones (not their real family name) send their children to Camp Ramah and have become very friendly with the Ramah community, to the extent that Mrs. Jones is on the Ramah Board. Several years ago they donated money to Ramah. It was used primarily to build a facility at camp that bears their family name, but there is still some money left over for Ramah to use for other purposes. Mr. Jones was just indicted by a grand jury for money laundering and stock fraud, and the cover story in the local Jewish newspaper described the indictment in great detail. Their synagogue’s rabbi gave a sermon on the Shabbat following the indictment denouncing Mr. Jones and announcing that the facility that they had donated to the synagogue in the Jones family name would no longer bear their name. Because this case arose at a Ramah camp, I will use Ramah as my example throughout this responsum. Its reasoning and conclusions, however, apply equally to any Jewish communal institution – synagogues, schools, federations, social service agencies, and national and international organizations like the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly.

Questions (She’ailot): 1) May or should Camp Ramah treat Mr. Jones as if he were already convicted of the crime of which he is accused after he is indicted but before he is convicted? 2) If Mr. Jones is convicted of the crime of which he is accused, may or should Camp Ramah remove the Jones family name from the facility that they donated? What if the facility had been named for Mr. Jones alone? 3) Must Camp Ramah use money it has raised from other sources to return to the Jones family the amount of money they donated if it has already been used to build the building in their name? 4) Must Camp Ramah return the money the Jones family donated that has not yet been used? 5) May Camp Ramah accept any further donations from Mr. Jones? 6) May Camp Ramah accept any further donations from the Jones family?

Rulings (Peskei Halakhah):

1. Indictment vs. conviction. Until and unless Mr. Jones is convicted, Jews individually and collectively must think and act toward him on the strong presumption in American law and the even stronger presumption in Jewish law that he is innocent. To do otherwise would violate the ban on slander (motzi shem ra).

2. Names on facilities. Even if Mr. Jones is convicted, either through his own confession or through a finding of the court, unless his family specifically requests that their name be removed from the facility that they donated, Ramah should not remove their name. To do so would actually violate Jewish laws prohibiting public embarrassment of innocent family members. If the building is named solely for Mr. Jones, whether to remove his name depends in part on community standards. What besides crimes would lead the nonprofit to remove the names of donors? The answer to this question affects the amount of shame involved in doing it in this instance. The acceptability or desirability of removing Mr. Jones’ name also depends on the level of his crime. This particular case is a middle ground where judgment is required. If Mr. Jones had violated the law in a much less serious way, then the question of shaming him by removing his name from the facility should not even arise. If, on the other hand, Mr. Jones had committed a violent crime, multiple crimes involving the oppression of individuals and society in general, or much more extensive fraud than Mr. Jones is alleged to have committed in this specific case, then Ramah or any other nonprofit organization should remove his name from the facility so that people do not think that the nonprofit honors the kinds of acts that Mr. Jones committed. In any case, the community has a duty to give emotional and other forms of support to the innocent members of Mr. Jones’ family and even to Mr. Jones himself as they go through this painful period in their lives, for they are, after all, members of our community, indeed active and contributing members, who should be thought of not solely for the crime that Mr. Jones committed but also for the good that he and his family have done.

3. Money already used. Even if Mr. Jones is convicted of the crimes for which he is now indicted, Ramah need not return the money that had already been used to erect the building that bears the family’s name because a permanent change of form and despair of the original owners have occurred. In other cases, the nonprofit institution must determine whether both elements have occurred in order to be legally entitled on these grounds to keep the money or objects donated.

4. Money not yet used. Again, even if Mr. Jones is convicted of the crimes for which he is now indicted, Ramah need not return the money the family donated that had not yet been used on the grounds of a transfer of possession together with the owners’ despair of retrieving their property once both the government and all aggrieved parties have settled their cases with him or the statute of limitations has run out for any aggrieved parties to file further civil suits. In other cases, the nonprofit institution must determine whether both of these elements have occurred to determine whether the non-profit organization is legally entitled on these grounds to keep the money or the objects donated on the grounds of both transfer of possession (shinnui reshut) and despair (ya’ush). If both transfer of possession and the owner’s despair have occurred, they make keep it; if not, they must return it.

5. Accepting further donations from Mr. Jones. If Mr. Jones is convicted of what he is accused of doing, Ramah may not accept any more money from him unless (a) Mr. Jones has publicly specified that in addition to the compensation, fines, and/or prison time the court imposed he wants to make this further donation as part of his process of teshuvah and (b) Ramah can determine that he earned the new money legitimately. Generally, a nonprofit may assume that donations to it are legally earned, but if the individual is “a known thief,” as Mr. Jones is once he was convicted of fraud, Ramah or any other nonprofit must take these extra precautions in order to receive further donations from him in accordance with Jewish law.

6. Accepting further donations from the Jones family. If the Jones family offers to donate more money to Ramah, the camp may accept it if either (a) the assets were transferred before Mr. Jones’ conviction to his family members, who received them with no knowledge that they were the fruit of illegal activities (i.e., there had been a change of ownership, a shinnuy reshut, to 39 innocent parties before the indictment) and the original owners had despaired of retrieving their property (ya’ush), along the lines defined in ruling (4) above; or (b) the assets of Mr. Jones himself are a minority of what the Jones family is contributing and it is not known whether his portion was stolen or not. 7. Protecting the reputation of the nonprofit agency. Even though it is legally permissible to act in the ways described in (2), (3), (4), (5), and (6), if Mr. Jones is convicted of the crimes for which he has been indicted, the Ramah Board may decide that it is in the camp’s best interests to return the money it received from the Jones family or to refuse to accept any more money from them, just as it may decide to accept or reject any other proposed gift from anyone else. Likely considerations in this judgment – although not the only possible ones – are the level of Mr. Jones’ crime; the extent to which keeping the Jones’ gifts will undermine the mission, values, or reputation of the nonprofit; and the likelihood that keeping the Jones’ gifts will deter future donations from others.

These conclusions apply not only to Camp Ramah, but also to any Jewish communal institution, including synagogues, schools, federations, social service agencies, and national or international organizations, such as the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly.

Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof-- Justice, Justice You Must Pursue

Umot HaOlam-- Other Nations of the World

The Seven Laws of Noah (Hebrew: שבע מצוות בני נח Sheva Mitzvot B'nei Noach), also referred to as the Noahide Laws or the Noachide Laws (from the Hebrew pronunciation of "Noah"), are a set of imperatives which, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a binding set of laws for the "children of Noah" – that is, all of humanity.

According to Jewish tradition, non-Jews who adhere to these laws because they were given by Moses are said to be followers of Noahidism and regarded as righteous gentiles, who are assured of a place in Olam Haba (עולם הבא, the world to come), the final reward of the righteous.

The seven Noahide laws as traditionally enumerated are the following:

1. Not to worship idols.
2. Not to curse God.
3. To establish courts of justice.
4. Not to commit murder.
5. Not to commit adultery, bestiality, or sexual immorality.
6. Not to steal.
7. Not to eat flesh torn from a living animal.

Yatom; Almanah-- The Orphan and the Widow

Bakesh Shalom V’Rodfehu – Seek Peace and Pursue It