History and Evolution of Tikkun Olam, According to the Textual Sources

Abstract

ABSTRACT This compendium of texts traces the development of several different interpretations of tikkun olam through Jewish intellectual history. These texts demonstrate conclusively that the roots of the social justice interpretation of tikkun olam are older than those of the Kabbalistic interpretation, going back to the tenth century expression of religious humanism. They also reveal a firm foundation for an ecological interpretation of tikkun olam as far back as early midrash. Furthermore, liberal Judaism's understanding of tikkun olam is shown to be sourced in Eastern European religious humanism going back to the seventeenth century, and transmitted in large part via Zionist thought in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.