Further Reading

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Tikkun Olam


Lurianic Kabbalah has also been used to explain the role of prayer and ritual action in tikkun olam. According to this vision of the world, God contracted part of God's self into vessels of light to create the world. These vessels shattered and their shards became sparks of light trapped within the material of creation. Prayer, especially contemplation of various aspects of the divinity (sephirot), releases these sparks and allows them to reunite with God's essence.

According to
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, an influential 18th century interpreter and systemic philosopher of Lurianic Kabbalah, the physical world is connected to spiritual realms above, and these spiritual realms in turn influence the physical world. In his view, as developed in his Derech Hashem, Jews have the ability, through physical deeds and free will, to direct and control these spiritual forces. These spiritual forces include tikkun (rectification, good; the presence of Divine light) and kilkul (damage, evil; not merely the absence of goodness and Divine light, but its own force that is strengthened by the absence of goodness and Divine light).
God's desire in creation is that God's creations ultimately will recognize God's unity and overcome evil; this will constitute the perfection (tikkun) of creation. Jews have the Torah now and are aware of God's unity, but when all of humanity recognizes this fact, the rectification will be complete. Only the actions of Jews further creation; the deeds of non-Jews do not.
Instead, God gave non-Jews the Noachide Laws so that they may obtain individual portions in the Olam Haba (afterlife). (Wikipedia)