Tikkun Olam - Repairing the World - Being God's Partner

Martin Buber - Tales of the Hasidim - The Early Masters

Zusya once asked his brother, wise Rabbi Elimelekh: "Dear brother, in the Scriptures we read that the souls of all men were comprised in Adam. So we too must have been present, when he ate the apple. I do not understand how I could have let him eat it! And how could you have let him eat it?"

Elimelekh replied: "We had to just as all had to. For had he not eaten, the poison of the snake would have remained within him in all eternity. He would have always thought: 'All I need do is eat of this tree and I shall be as God--all I need do is eat of this tree, and I shall be as God.' "

[trans. Olga Marx (New York: Shocken Books, 1947), 243]

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).

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, God first drew in a breath, contracting God's Self. 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 loam, 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.