Tikkun Olam and Jonas Salk
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ShareLooking at Tikkun Olam through the lens of Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine
Magazine photo of Jonas Salk in laboratory, taken by Yousuf Karsh specifically for Wisdom Magazine
https://www.americanheritage.com/miracle-workers - article
With appreciation to JTeach,
For a Time Such as This, by Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove (2024)
The evolution of American Jewry has been transformative. Long established in the United States and also transformed by the millions of Eastern European immigrants arriving in 1880-1920, American Jewry was further and forever changed by the GI Bill, which after World War II granted veterans access to many levels of university and professional education. Jews had once been excluded from these opportunities, but this was the case no longer, profoundly affecting the young veterans’ hope for the future. American Jews began to leave behind their old neighborhoods, their Old World accents and traditions. Many sought to assimilate, embracing a secular and pluralistic vision of America.
This was “the bargain of emancipation”. Namely, in return for becoming fully integrated citizens, Jews were expected (or expected themselves) to shed their distinctive religious and cultural markers and adopt secular lifestyles. A decline in Jewish religious observance and affiliation was followed by a precipitous rise in intermarriage. Parochial Jewish concerns were replaced by more universal and progressive ones, as exemplified by the ubiquitous phrase “Tikkun Olam” (“mending the world”)
As the Jewish community assimilated into its American setting and as Jewish social services agencies found common cause and collaboration with a wider network of secular social service agencies, the emphasis on helping those in need expanded to include a much broader humanity. For the first time in a long time, Jews were positioned to put their words into actions by way of Tikkun Olam, “mending the world”. Examples of Tikkun Olam abound: The Philadelphia Hebrew Benevolent Society, founded in 1845, would be renamed the Jewish Family Service, expanding to include the wider community. The ADL, initially founded to combat antisemitism and discrimination against Jews, evolved to combat bigotry of all kinds. HIAS makes the shift explicit in its promotional literature: “We used to take refugees because they were Jewish. Now we take them because we’re Jewish.” Organizationally, American Jewry pivoted from particularism to universalism. Over time American Jews became some of the most effective advocates for progressive causes. From feminism to fighting poverty, from the seder [“Ha Lachma Anya”] to civil rights, from Emma Lazarus to Ruth Badger Ginsburg — three thousand years of Jewish empathy had a platform for expression on American soil.
- p. 36-37, 56-57
This was “the bargain of emancipation”. Namely, in return for becoming fully integrated citizens, Jews were expected (or expected themselves) to shed their distinctive religious and cultural markers and adopt secular lifestyles. A decline in Jewish religious observance and affiliation was followed by a precipitous rise in intermarriage. Parochial Jewish concerns were replaced by more universal and progressive ones, as exemplified by the ubiquitous phrase “Tikkun Olam” (“mending the world”)
As the Jewish community assimilated into its American setting and as Jewish social services agencies found common cause and collaboration with a wider network of secular social service agencies, the emphasis on helping those in need expanded to include a much broader humanity. For the first time in a long time, Jews were positioned to put their words into actions by way of Tikkun Olam, “mending the world”. Examples of Tikkun Olam abound: The Philadelphia Hebrew Benevolent Society, founded in 1845, would be renamed the Jewish Family Service, expanding to include the wider community. The ADL, initially founded to combat antisemitism and discrimination against Jews, evolved to combat bigotry of all kinds. HIAS makes the shift explicit in its promotional literature: “We used to take refugees because they were Jewish. Now we take them because we’re Jewish.” Organizationally, American Jewry pivoted from particularism to universalism. Over time American Jews became some of the most effective advocates for progressive causes. From feminism to fighting poverty, from the seder [“Ha Lachma Anya”] to civil rights, from Emma Lazarus to Ruth Badger Ginsburg — three thousand years of Jewish empathy had a platform for expression on American soil.
- p. 36-37, 56-57
A History of the Jewish Experience, by Leo Trepp (2001)
According to the Ari (Isaac Luria, 1534-1572), in order to make room for the world that God was about to create, God retreated and abandoned a part of the divine omnipresence. This act of withdrawal, called tzimtzum, preceded creation; in a sense, God went into exile in order to make room for creation. Then God created the world out of the void, reentering it through creation and revelation. At creation, the divine light flowed into the tzimtzum. The first creation is Adam Kadmon, primordial man, wholly spiritual, first and highest form of the manifestation of En Sof. Divine light from Adam Kadmon flowed into the sefirot. Since finite beings were to be created in accordance with the sefirot, the sefirot needed bowls, vessels, to hold the light. The first three sefirot could hold the light, but when it broke upon the seven lower sefirot, they could not hold the light and the vessels broke. The broken shells, kelipot, to which some of the holy sparks adhered, sank into the uttermost regions of primordial space, the abyss, where the spirit of evil dwells. Through the breaking of the vessels the union of the universe within itself and with God was torn apart, and the universe and the human world were torn in catastrophic conflict; the unity of God in the world had been broken. The Shekhinah fell when the vessels broke and, as the sefirah, is in exile.
The powers of evil must be transformed into powers of love, the world must be mended, and the manifestation of God be restored to unity. This is the work of tikkun, restoration. With the beginning of tikkun, the Shekhinah acquired new strength. Placed in the hands of humanity, tikkun is advanced in the process of history, and the Jew has a special function in bringing it about; the Jew's kavannah must be directed toward this goal. The divine sparks are scattered throughout the entire world, and Israel, like the Shekhinah, is called to go into exile to the very ends of the world to gather them.
Tikkun, given a modern meaning as the call to promote unity and justice throughout the world, is perceived by modern Jews as a paramount task, challenging both Jews and non-Jews alike. A Jewish periodical bears this name.
- P. 480-481
According to the Ari (Isaac Luria, 1534-1572), in order to make room for the world that God was about to create, God retreated and abandoned a part of the divine omnipresence. This act of withdrawal, called tzimtzum, preceded creation; in a sense, God went into exile in order to make room for creation. Then God created the world out of the void, reentering it through creation and revelation. At creation, the divine light flowed into the tzimtzum. The first creation is Adam Kadmon, primordial man, wholly spiritual, first and highest form of the manifestation of En Sof. Divine light from Adam Kadmon flowed into the sefirot. Since finite beings were to be created in accordance with the sefirot, the sefirot needed bowls, vessels, to hold the light. The first three sefirot could hold the light, but when it broke upon the seven lower sefirot, they could not hold the light and the vessels broke. The broken shells, kelipot, to which some of the holy sparks adhered, sank into the uttermost regions of primordial space, the abyss, where the spirit of evil dwells. Through the breaking of the vessels the union of the universe within itself and with God was torn apart, and the universe and the human world were torn in catastrophic conflict; the unity of God in the world had been broken. The Shekhinah fell when the vessels broke and, as the sefirah, is in exile.
The powers of evil must be transformed into powers of love, the world must be mended, and the manifestation of God be restored to unity. This is the work of tikkun, restoration. With the beginning of tikkun, the Shekhinah acquired new strength. Placed in the hands of humanity, tikkun is advanced in the process of history, and the Jew has a special function in bringing it about; the Jew's kavannah must be directed toward this goal. The divine sparks are scattered throughout the entire world, and Israel, like the Shekhinah, is called to go into exile to the very ends of the world to gather them.
Tikkun, given a modern meaning as the call to promote unity and justice throughout the world, is perceived by modern Jews as a paramount task, challenging both Jews and non-Jews alike. A Jewish periodical bears this name.
- P. 480-481
