Daily Podcasts Video Research

The road to Jewish hell is paved with 'Tikkun Olam.'

JL;DR SUMMARY This guest essay by Sam Hilt critically examines the modern adoption of the term "Tikkun Olam" in Jewish discourse as a simplification of Judaism's philosophical depth. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Jewish HistorySocial JusticeJewish PhilosophyKabbalahMysticismTikkun OlamSpiritual DevelopmentIsaac LuriaSabbatai ZeviCritique Of Modern Judaism

Places mentioned

Israel
"In ancient Israel, in the first centuries of the Common Era, the phrase Tikkun Olam already appeared in the Jewish liturgy in the Amidah prayer which was recited at each of the three daily prayer services."
Castile and León, Spain
"It was here in the medieval Jewish community in Castille that a mystical text known as the Zohar appeared."
Istanbul, Turkey
"A spiritual leader by the name of Sabbatai Zevi declared himself to be the Messiah, and he even undertook a journey to Istanbul, where he implored the Sultan to convert to Judaism."
Florence, Tuscany, Italy
"In Renaissance Florence in the 15th century, for example, under entirely different circumstances, a strangely similar story unfolded."
France
"For example, during the French Revolution, the Gregorian calendar was discarded, all the months were renamed, and the year was reset from 1793 to zero."
Russian Federation
"After the astonishing, creative ferment of 19th-century Russian society in the fields of literature, music, and painting, after all the salon discussions of how to create a more just society, after the anarchists and the nihilists and all the political manifestos, the Bolsheviks maneuvered their way to the position of top dog."
China
"In Russia, Lenin and Stalin killed their millions while, in China, Mao Zedong killed tens of millions more than even they could manage."
Cambodia
"Pol Pot in Cambodia adopted a different strategy in his quest for purity: He surmised that all those who wore glasses had been corrupted by at least some formal education, so he had them all escorted to the killing fields."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 53257
Cairo Source ID 36
Retrieved 2025-06-05 05:31:02 UTC
Curated 2025-06-05 08:31:46 UTC