More on Tikkun Olam

Tikkun Olam is a Hebrew phrase that means "Repair the World."

I first read about this concept, or commandment if you will, in a book called Speaking of Faith by Krista Tippett. The book changed my life. For many reasons but this was one of them...

This is the passage:

"One of the phrases that recurs most often in my interviews--in Jewish as well as non-Jewish voices-- is the moral longing to "repair the world," Tikkun Olam. There is a Jewish legend behind this notion. Sometime early in the life of the world, something happened to shatter the light of the universe into countless pieces. They lodged as sparks inside every part if creation. The highest human calling is to look for this original light from where we sit, to point to it and gather it up and in so doing to repair the world.....It insists that each one of us, flawed and inadequate as we may feel, has exactly what's needed to help repair the part of the world that we can see and touch."

It brings tears to my eyes. Reading that. Typing that. This passage showed me what I am to do with my life. Sometimes, we get brought down by the world, and it is hard to actually believe that one small person can do any good- but we can. We have to. I know that I have to. And everything I strive and dream and hope to do is for this one cause. And so I can never forget my mission to collect the sparks of Light, I got this commandment tattooed on my forearm- a reminder, for the rest of my life, of what I am here to do.

It it such a beautiful concept and legend.

If I believe in anything- it is this.