FUTURE OF JEWISH
‘Tikkun Olam’ is not Jewish at all.
Joshua Hoffman
December 13, 2025

For most of Jewish history, Tikkun Olam did not mean what many Jews now casually think it means. It was not a feel-good injunction to “make the world better” through activism, nor was it a political slogan meant to mirror whatever the prevailing social-justice fashion demanded. Its earliest appearance in our tradition sits quietly in the Mishnah (the body of classical rabbinic teachings codified circa 200 CE), where the Sages use the phrase “mipnei tikkun ha-olam” to justify legal rulings that preserve social stability — clarifying divorce law, regulating debt, preventing injustices that could tear communities apart…These were not broad universalist missions but targeted, halakhic (Jewish law) repairs to prevent societal breakdown. READ MORE

JEWISH JOURNAL David Suissa: Instead of Expanding Judaism, Tikkun Olam May Have Diluted It  Compared to feeding the hungry or saving the planet, how important can it be to light Shabbat candles? That question and similar ones have been on my mind lately, as I’ve thought about tikkun olam, the movement to “repair the world.” For many years now, tikkun olam has become a driving spiritual force and an elevated Jewish value throughout much of the liberal wing of American Jewry. How could it not be? What can be more meaningful to one’s life than to repair a broken world? One question, however, that few people have asked is: Did tikkun olam become more attractive and meaningful than Judaism itself? Tikkun olam proponents respond by not distinguishing between the two: Fighting for social justice is Judaism. Everything socially worthy, in fact–  helping the marginalized, protecting migrants, assisting the homeless, dealing with climate change, defending democracy, etc.—can be lumped under “Jewish values.