עַל כֵּן נְקַוֶּה לְּךָ יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ לִרְאוֹת מְהֵרָה בְּתִפְאֶֽרֶ
עֻזֶּֽךָ לְהַעֲבִיר גִּלּוּלִים מִן הָאָֽרֶץ וְהָאֱלִילִים כָּרוֹת יִכָּרֵתוּן לְתַקֵּן עוֹלָם בְּמַלְכוּת שַׁדַּי: וְכָל בְּנֵי בָשָׂר יִקְרְאוּ בִשְׁמֶֽךָ לְהַפְנוֹת אֵלֶֽיךָ כָּל רִשְׁעֵי אָֽרֶץ: יַכִּֽירוּ וְיֵדְעוּ כָּל יוֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל כִּי לְךָ תִּכְרַע כָּל בֶּֽרֶךְ תִּשָּׁבַע כָּל לָשׁוֹן: לְפָנֶֽיךָ יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ יִכְרְעוּ וְיִפּֽוֹלוּ וְלִכְבוֹד שִׁמְךָ יְקָר יִתֵּֽנוּ: וִיקַבְּלוּ כֻלָּם
Therefore we put our hope in You, Hashem our G-d, that we may soon see Your mighty splendor, removing detestable idolatry from the earth, and false gods will be utterly cut off, when the world will be perfected (l’takein olam) through the Almighty's sovereignty. Then all humanity will call upon Your Name, to turn all the earth's wicked toward you. All the world's inhabitants will recognize and know that to You every knee should bend, every tongue should swear.
-Aleinu (Second Paragraph)
בראשונה היה עושה בית דין במקום אחר ומבטלו. התקין רבן גמליאל הזקן שלא יהו עושין כן, מפני תקון העולם.
בראשונה היה משנה שמו ושמה, שם עירו ושם עירה. התקין רבן גמליאל הזקן שיהא כותב איש פלוני וכל שם שיש לו, אשה פלונית וכל שם שיש לה, מפני תקון העולם.
...הלל התקין פרוזבול מפני תקון העולם.
At first, a man [who had sent his wife a divorce via messenger] would set up a religious court in a different place [from where the wife lived] and cancel [the bill of divorce]. Rabban Gamliel the Elder enacted that they not be able to do this, due to Tikkun HaOlam.
At first, a man could change his name and her name, the name of his city, or the name of her city. Rabban Gamliel the Elder enacted that one would write: "The man, So-and-so, and any other name that he has, and the woman, So-and-so, and any other name that she has," due to Tikkun HaOlam.
...Hillel instituted the prozbul [a court-issued exemption from the Sabbatical year cancellation of a personal loan] due to Tikkun HaOlam.
המוכר עבדו לגוי או לחוצה לארץ, יצא בן חורין. אין פודין את השבויין יותר על כדי דמיהן, מפני תקון העולם. ואין מבריחין את השבויין, מפני תקון העולם. רבן שמעון בן גמליאל אומר: מפני תקנת השבויין. ואין לוקחים ספרים תפלין ומזוזות מן הגוים יותר על כדי דמיהן, מפני תקון העולם.
[With regard to] one who sells his slave to a non-Jew or to someone outside Eretz Yisrael, [the slave automatically] goes free. We do not ransom captives for more than they are worth, due to Tikkun HaOlam. We do not help captives escape, due to Tikkun HaOlam. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: "[It is] due to the enactment of the captives. We do not buy sefarim [Torah scrolls or holy books], tefillin, and mezuzot from the non-Jews for more than their worth, due to Tikkun HaOlam.
(ב) א. כי צריך כל אדם לומר: כל העולם לא נברא אלא בשבילי (סנהדרין לז א). נמצא כשהעולם נברא בשבילי, צריך אני לראות ולעין בכל עת בתקון העולם. ולמלאות חסרון העולם, ולהתפלל בעבורם.
(2) 1. Since each man must say, "The whole world was only created for me." (Sanhedrin 37) -- hence, insofar as the world was created for me, I must at all times see and look into tikkun olam/rectifying the world and to fill the lackings of the world and pray for them.
...[Two American rabbinic thinkers to invoke and popularize Tikkun Olam in the 1960s were Harold Schulweis and Irving Greenberg, who saw tikkun olam as a response to God's absence during the Holocaust and to a world] “created imperfect and incomplete.” Humanity was tasked with being “an ally of God in perfecting and repairing the incomplete world (tikkun olam).” In North America, tikkun olam... made its debut around 1940... Jewish educator Alexander Dushkin invoked tikkun olam during World War II. Dushkin... insisted that the “inalienable rights” of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” had their analogy in the Torah’s description of God’s attributes... He added that while democracy “based its social relationships on the dignity of the individual” and envisioned an engaged citizenry pursuing the common good through “social service,” Jewish tradition was based upon “the conception of Man as both the child of God and the partner of the Almighty in tikkun ha-olam—the continuous task of reconstructing the world.” [In 1945,] Dushkin, the executive director of the Jewish Education Committee of New York, included [tikkun olam] among seven “Common Elements” that should be taught in Jewish schools of all denominations.
… [In early twentieth-century Palestine, the term] was adopted... to describe the most utopian manifestations of the Zionist project. To be a metaken olam, a perfecter of the world, was to embrace radical change. For example, during the Second Aliyah (1904–1914), tikkun ha-olam was used to articulate the motivations of the members of the earliest cooperative settlements. Later, it became an important [concept in the thought of] Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook… Kook declined to see a binary opposition between the material and the spiritual worlds or between Israel and the other nations, teaching that there was holiness in all of creation. Furthermore, he regarded penitence as a means to tikkun, and a reunification with God
... By the 1970s and 1980s leading agencies were responding to criticism by intensifying their efforts to transmit Jewish values, particularly by increasing support for educational and cultural endeavors. They were also articulating their social welfare and social justice agenda using terms of Jewish values… In teaching “an entire generation of federation activists to think and visualize themselves in more Judaic terms,” Greenberg helped introduce and popularize a “vocabulary” of Jewish value-concepts...Thus, by the 1980s and 90s Hebrew terms such as tzedakah and tikkun olam began to appear in federation slogans, resolutions and promotional materials.
… Shlomo Bardin... founder of the Brandeis Camp Institute [also] played an important role in reintroducing tikkun olam. [One Jewish leader recalled that during summer 1960, Bardin taught] campers that “the purpose of Judaism” could be found in four words of the second paragraph of the Aleinu prayer: l’takeyn olam b’malkhut Shaddai. Bardin insisted that it was their “task” as Jews to “fix the world.”
... Tikkun olam remained a fairly obscure term throughout the early 1960s... In 1970, determined to place greater emphasis on tzedakah and social justice, USY [the Conservative Youth movement] leaders revamped and expanded its Building Spiritual Bridges program and renamed it Tikun Olam. All of its social action and tzedakah programs were coordinated through this project, and, in 1975, an accompanying educational guide was published with the same title.
… In the 1980s, tikkun olam also began to appear in the curricula of the Reform movement. As in the Conservative movement, the discussion of tikkun olam often occurred within the context of values and character education or was linked to social action and social justice programming… An article in The Jewish Catalog, however, was most important in spreading the idea of tikkun olam throughout North America. [Historians argue that one ... major achievements of the Catalog was popularizing the] language of the havurah movement, including words like tzedakah, kavanah (intentionality) and tikkun olam.
...In 1975,... [newly-ordained Rabbi Gerald] Serotta became interested in the derivation and meaning of [tikkun olam]. Eager to find a term that could express what he believed were the core Jewish values that infused social justice activism, Serotta approached one of his teachers, Eugene Borowitz, about tracing the application of tikkun olam in rabbinic literature. He was surprised to learn that the majority of cases where tikkun olam was mentioned were associated with divorce law. This led Borowitz to suggest that he would find another rabbinic idiom, “mipnei darkhei shalom,” for the sake of social peace, more useful for his purposes. Serotta, however, was intrigued by the Talmudic passages in which tikkun olam was associated with economic justice…Tikkun olam remained an important motif for [politically liberal Jewish organizations] throughout the 1980s…
The most important figures [shaping Jewish politics around tikkun olam in the 1990s] were Leonard Fein and Michael Lerner…Fein strongly maintained that far from endangering Jewish survival by making Judaism indistinguishable from liberalism or secular humanism, tikkun olam gave purpose and meaning to Jewish survival… Michael Lerner... co-founded TIKKUN, a political and cultural journal... to help keep “the Prophetic tradition alive.”… Lerner was instrumental in stimulating a wider communal conversation about social justice in Jewish life... Liberal rabbis and other Jewish thinkers increasingly sought the paradigm of tikkun when discussing challenges that were either universal or particular to the Jewish community. The rhetoric of repair was especially well suited to the [time], as people became increasingly focused on personal meaning and spiritual seeking.
...Tikkun olam promises much and demands comparatively little in the way of sacrifice. This is its greatest strength and, perhaps, its major weakness.
- Dr. Jonathan Krasner, "The Place of Tikkun Olam in American Jewish Life", Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 2014. http://jcpa.org/article/place-tikkun-olam-american-jewish-life1/
Or, [as said] in the aleinu prayer, it is the promise and the challenge l’takayn olam b’malchut Sha-dai – to perfect the world under the sovereignty of G-d. It is the last task of Jewish history, and it is the hardest task.
...The Torah is a book about us, yet it doesn’t begin with the Jewish people... [Instead, it starts as] a story about humanity as a whole. It tells a story of two orders of civilizations [Adam, and later, Noah] which began as covenants with all of mankind and how they failed... Both are explicitly founded on the concept of humanity as betzelem Elokim, ‘in the image of G-d.’ Both fail.
...The Almighty tried twice to teach humanity universal rules... They failed; because the most powerful way to teach is by particular example. If you want to instruct someone on how to be good, identify a role model and let him see how that person lives... That became the Jewish vocation; not to stand for some universal truth but to be a particular, specific living example of how to live...
...Our task is to become a particular living example of a set of universal truths, and therefore the conflict between the universal and the particular in Judaism is not a conflict at all because... it is only by being true to ourselves that we can be true to other people... Only by having the courage to be different can we be role models to the dignity of difference. That is why Tikkun Olam in my view is the special responsibility of we who are the guardians of Torah.
... We have the chance today of shaping a society built on justice and compassion... If we do it the world will be a better place; if we do it, we will be better Jews.
- R. Jonathan Sacks, "Tikkun Olam: Orthodoxy's Responsibility to Perfect G-d's World", Orthodox Union West Coast Convention Speech, 1997 http://advocacy.ou.org/tikkun-olam-orthodoxys-responsibility-to-perfect-g-ds-world/
(יז) לִמְד֥וּ הֵיטֵ֛ב דִּרְשׁ֥וּ מִשְׁפָּ֖ט אַשְּׁר֣וּ חָמ֑וֹץ שִׁפְט֣וּ יָת֔וֹם רִ֖יבוּ אַלְמָנָֽה׃
Learn to do good, seek justice, relieve the oppressed,
bring justice for the orphan, seek defense for the widow.
Many thanks to Andrew Nussbaum's source sheet and NLE Resources Source Sheet.
(ה) כִּ֤י אִם־הֵיטֵיב֙ תֵּיטִ֔יבוּ אֶת־דַּרְכֵיכֶ֖ם וְאֶת־מַֽעַלְלֵיכֶ֑ם אִם־עָשׂ֤וֹ תַֽעֲשׂוּ֙ מִשְׁפָּ֔ט בֵּ֥ין אִ֖ישׁ וּבֵ֥ין רֵעֵֽהוּ׃ (ו) גֵּ֣ר יָת֤וֹם וְאַלְמָנָה֙ לֹ֣א תַֽעֲשֹׁ֔קוּ וְדָ֣ם נָקִ֔י אַֽל־תִּשְׁפְּכ֖וּ בַּמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וְאַחֲרֵ֨י אֱלֹהִ֧ים אֲחֵרִ֛ים לֹ֥א תֵלְכ֖וּ לְרַ֥ע לָכֶֽם׃
(ז) וְשִׁכַּנְתִּ֤י אֶתְכֶם֙ בַּמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה בָּאָ֕רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָתַ֖תִּי לַאֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶ֑ם לְמִן־עוֹלָ֖ם וְעַד־עוֹלָֽם׃
...if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt; then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
(ב) שִׁמְעוֹן הַצַּדִּיק הָיָה מִשְּׁיָרֵי כְנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה. הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, עַל שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד, עַל הַתּוֹרָה וְעַל הָעֲבוֹדָה וְעַל גְּמִילוּת חֲסָדִים:
(2) Shimon the Righteous was from the remnants of the Great Assembly. He would say, "On three things the world stands: on the Torah, on the service and on acts of lovingkindness."
(ד) העולם עומד. לא נברא העולם אלא בשביל שלשה דברים הללו:
(ה) על התורה. שאלמלי לא קבלו ישראל את התורה לא נבראו שמים וארץ, דכתיב (ירמיה ל״ג) אם לא בריתי יומם ולילה חוקות שמים וארץ לא שמתי [שבת פ״ח ע״א]:
(ז) ועל גמילות חסדים. דכתיב (תהלים פ״ט) עולם חסד יבנה. וגמילות חסדים הוא, לשמח חתנים, ולנחם אבלים, ולבקר חולים, ולקבור מתים, וכיוצא בזה:
(4) "The world stands": The world was only created for the sake of these three things....
(5) "on the Torah": Had Israel not received Torah, the heavens and the earth would not have been created, as is written (Jer. 33:25), “Were it not for my covenant day and night, also the laws of the heavens and the earth I would not have set." (Shabbat 88a)...
(7) "and on acts of lovingkindness": As it is written (Ps. 89:3), “The world is built up by your kindness." And lovingkindness is to regale grooms and to comfort mourners, to visit the sick and inter the dead, and the like.
למה על אלו דברים ולא על דברים אחרים? ...כי הנבראים נבראו בשביל שיש בהם הטוב...רק מצד הטוב שיש שנמצא בכל אחד הקיום... לכן תמצא בכל מעשה בראשית שאמר וירא ה' כי טוב...
ומה שהאדם הוא טוב...הבחינה האחת היא כשהוא טוב בעצמו...הבחינה השנית שיהיה טוב לשמים...השלישית שראוי שיהיה טוב אל זולתו מבני אדם אשר נמצאים אתו...
וכנגד השלישי שצריך שיהיה אדם שלם וטוב עם זולתו זהו גמילות חסדים; כאשר עושה לזולתו חסד חנם הנה אין ספק שבזה הוא טוב לזולתו. ואין דבר טוב מזה כאשר עושה טוב לזולתו בחנם ואז הוא טוב לגמרי.
Maharal, Derech Chaim, ibid. – Chesed is the highest form of goodness.
Why does the world stand specifically upon these three things and not others? [The Maharal then explains how each of these three values maintains the world; we will look at his explanation of kindness. –Ed.] The reason is that everything that was created only deserves to exist in as much as it is inherently good. It is the goodness in each object that allows it to exist … For this reason we find that after the creation of each object during the six days of Creation, it is written that God saw that it was good …
Man’s capacity for goodness can be divided into three parts: His own intrinsic goodness; his goodness in his relationship with God; and his goodness in his relationships with his fellow human beings …
Chesed corresponds to this third aspect of man’s life; for it is eminently clear that when man performs kind deeds for his fellow men without expecting any reimbursement, he is being good towards them. There is, in fact, no greater good than when one bestows kindnesses upon others from his own volition – in doing so he is truly and really “good.”
— Maharal
חייב אדם לטרוח בעמל נפשו על תקנת חבירו אם דל ואם עשיר וזאת מן החמורות ומן העקרים הנדרשים מן האדם.
Rabbeinu Yonah, Sha’arei Teshuvah (The Gates of Repentance) 3:13
One is obligated to toil, exerting himself to the depths of his very soul, on behalf of his fellow man, be that person rich or poor. This is one of the most crucial and important things that man is called upon to do.
תחילת הכל צריך האדם לידע שגדר גמילות חסדים מונח על כל עניני הטוב שאדם עושה חסד ומטיב לחבירו בחנם. יש שמתחסד עמו בממונו כגון שמשאיל לו בהמה או כלי או הלואת ממון כו' ויש שמתחסד עמו בגופו... כגון שמכניס אורחים לתוך ביתו ומטריח עצמו לפניהם וכן מצות לויה שמלוה אותם...
עברית
Chofetz Chaim, Ahavat Chesed, Introduction
The term gemilut chasadim (bestowing kindness) refers to any type of voluntary good that one does for another. Sometimes it may involve loaning money, while at other times it constitutes actually involving one’s own self in helping others, such as through exerting oneself on behalf of guests or escorting visitors or the like.
English
שצונו להדמות אליו ית'...שנאמר והלכת בדרכיו ...שענינו להדמות בפעולות הטובות והמדות החשובות שיתואר בהם הא-ל יתעלה...
Sefer Hamitzvot, Mitzvat Asei #8
We are commanded to emulate God, as it is written, “And you shall go in His ways…” This implies emulating the good actions and good attributes that are used to describe God.
גם זה תשובה לעניים האומרים: איך נעשה טובה? הלא אין בידינו מאומה ליתן צדקה! ואלו דברים של הבל הם, כי יכול ליתן צדקה במעשיו הטובים ובקיום המצוות, אשר יזהר בעבודת הבורא ית' בכל יכלתו, ובזכות הטובים והצדיקים הקב"ה מטיב לעולם ומפרנסם, היש צדקה גדולה מזאת?
Orchot Tzadikim, End of Sha’ar Ha’Achzariut
Some people who do not have financial resources ask, “How can we do chesed? We have nothing to give as charity!” They are, however, mistaken. One can be charitable by doing good deeds and mitzvot and by being extremely meticulous in his service of God. Moreover, in the merit of the righteous and their deeds, God brings good upon others. Could there be any greater form of tzedakah?
יתכן שיעשה חסד עם עצמו ואף זה יקרא בשם חסד...כי הנפש נחשב לזר אצלו וכיון שעושה חסד עם זר מיקרי עשיית חסד...חסד זה מן הנכבדים בין מעשי חסד...כאן בעוה"ז נמצא במצב של דחקות ועניות ונצרך למעשי הטבה של האדם...ומעתה כל מצוה ומצוה שאדם עושה חייב לעשותה בגדרי חסד ורחמים לנפש.
Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein, Ohr Yechezkel, Midot p. 179
Although the classic form of chesed is performed on behalf of others, it is in fact possible to bestow chesed upon oneself and to thus be considered a ba’al chesed. Since we naturally identify more with our bodies, we tend to regard the soul as a complete stranger. In truth, the soul is in a situation of impoverishment and discomfort in this world, and it requires our kindness in the form of feeding it with Torah and mitzvot and by refining our character traits. This type of chesed is in fact one of the most significant acts of chesed we can do … Thus, each and every mitzvah that we perform should be carried out as an act of chesed to the soul.
יצייר אדם בנפשו את צרת חברו ודאגותיו לכל פרטיהם וחלקיהם ואז ישא בעול עמו וירחמהו; כן בציירו לנפשו את גודל שמחת רעהו ואושרו בהשיגו את אשר יידרש לו. אז בידעו כי בידו הוא לסבב אושר רב כזה לרעהו בנתינתו, הלא תקל לו הנתינה.
Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler, Michtav M’Eliyahu Vol. 1, p. 45
One should utilize his imagination to picture his fellow man’s suffering or lack, and how happy he would be to be relieved of his troubles or obtain what he lacks. When one understands that he has the ability to benefit another person by fulfilling his needs, it will be much easier for him to give of himself to others.
החכמה אב לכל הנמצאות...כך יהיה הוא אב לכל יצוריו של הקב"ה ולישראל עיקר, ויבקש תמיד רחמים וברכה לעולם כדרך שהאב העליון רחמן על הויותיו...
Rabbi Moshe Cordevero, Tomer Devorah Ch. 3
One should emulate God in the sense that just as He is Father to everything in Creation, so should one see himself as father to all creatures – especially fellow Jews – and should always desire compassion and blessing for the entire world.
Many thanks to Andrew Nussbaum's sheet on Social Justice Vs Tikkun Olam and NLE Resources study guide on Chesed.