The Right Approach to Tikkun Olam (Correcting the World)
An article in The Jerusalem Post:
My comment:
“Tikkun Olam” has always been misunderstood by most.
One cannot “correct or fix the world” in itself. We already have a vast amount of experience of how obsolete and unsuccessful all the political, social, or economic attempts have been to “correct or fix” the world.
As long as we want to fix others and the world around us, the world is simply getting steadily worse, approaching a global meltdown.
The world is a collection of people. The world behaves as human beings behave. We build and comprise the world.
Thus, as long as we keep existing and behaving according to our inherently selfish, egoistic, exploitative, and hateful nature, the world is not going to change.
“Tikkun Olam” starts with recognizing our cancer-like inherent nature and making conscious and methodical efforts to change and improve ourselves — each person correcting and developing oneself instead of blaming and correcting others.
This is what “being Jewish” means; this is what our “Jewish method” helps us achieve. We Jews have to show practical and positive examples to others of how unity and mutual responsibility are possible above and against our inherent nature.
Then, when others also follow our method, the “world will fix itself” since human beings that comprise the world will be different.