Tikkun Olam Revisited: Gathering the Sparks for Healing

essay

"Gie me ae spark o' nature's fire, 
That's a' the learning I desire..."
~Robert Burns, from "Epistle to J. Lapraik"

“a gathering of emerging hosta lily and onion grass sparks”
(photo by the author)

A well-known Hebrew phrase that is a central aspect of Judaism, tikkun olam, is typically translated as “repairing the world.” However, there’s more to it and the purpose of this essay is to explain what that is and in context of the tragedies and horrors being perpetrated on the Palestinians in Gaza. As a person of Jewish heritage i feel obligated to “repair” what little i can.

As a preface, it’s important to add that i am not a Jewish scholar, nor do i have a full grasp of what Judaism is, as my personal trajectory veered away from the religion and into non-religious Kaballah. I do, however, consider myself a wordsmith who does research and offers re-interpretations of various words and topics that are commonly accepted without knowledge of the deeper root meanings and associations aka etymology.

Also worth noting, for clarity’s sake and stereotype busting, is that some branches of Kaballah (there are a variety of spellings) are considered religious and i only have vague familiarity with those. The Kaballah (a Hebrew mystical way), as i know and experience, is non-religious and not restricted to Jewish People, nor is it restricted to Hebraic studies and experiences, as it allows for whatever works to work... though within the framework of the Tree of Life of Kaballah.

No one can teach Kaballah, it has to be “personally-received.” All someone or a book can do is teach about how it works—as with life in general, one’s experiences are typically the truest tests.

Since Kaballah translates as “personally-received teaching,” the Mystery is embraced, as who knows what one might receive. My Path is also flavored with Taoist and other Pathways, all of which merge as ‘my Path.’ One way to convey “personally-received teaching/guidance” is: a tomato plant personally-receives sunlight and water; in other words, each being has a direct relationship with energies and entities, whether physical or spiritual, that are beyond the human.

Diving into the “revisited”
From “Gaza’s farmers return to find scorched trees, toxic soil”:

”The soil was cracked, and the olive trees he had tended for decades had scorched trunks as a result of all the Israeli bombardments. …

“The full extent of the long-term harm posed to Gaza’s land, including its soil, is still being assessed, but the United Nations Environmental Programme states that ‘damage to agricultural land and natural areas arising from the conflict may reduce the fertility of soil, and increase Gaza’s vulnerability to desertification.’

“Al-Najjar was not the only one whose seedlings withered this year, as many of his farmer neighbors also complained about the dry and dead soil.

“‘This land used to give us the best crops of cucumbers and tomatoes,’ he said. “Today, even the weeds do not grow as they used to.’…

“‘We have managed to rely on ourselves to provide some seeds and seedlings,’ he said. He hopes that with time and effort, the soil will come to life again, and that his cucumbers and potatoes will thrive.”

Holocaust: “to burn whole,” to which i’ll add “scorched earth”, a word that many people immediately associate with Nazi Germany. Yet there’s a holocaust happening in Gaza. And there’s a 500+ years holocaust still happening right under our feet (if you live in North America aka Turtle Island). While i have not read it, a well-known book is David E. Stannard’s American Holocaust: The Conquest Of The New World.

From a book blurb:

“For four hundred years from the first Spanish assaults against the Arawak people of Hispaniola in the 1490s to the U.S. Army's massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in the 1890s the indigenous inhabitants of North and South America endured an unending firestorm of violence. During that time the native population of the Western Hemisphere declined by as many as 100 million people [in total an estimated 95 to 97.5%]. … Stannard contends that the perpetrators of the American Holocaust drew on the same ideological wellspring as did the later architects of the Nazi Holocaust.”

As Steven Newcomb (Shawnee-Lenape) writes at his The Domination Chronicles:

“The Chosen People-Promised Land model used against our Native nations and peoples on this Turtle Island continent underlies the idea of ‘Zion’ in the Old Testament, and those who now follow the political ideology called ‘Zionism.’”

Genocide: the cide “killing” of a people’s ability to perpetuate their people, “gene- be born, give birth”.

According to a November 2024, BBC article: ”Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead verified by UN are women and children”.

Therefore in context, the current holocaust and genocide of Palestinians, perpetrated by extremist Zionists (and those who support them, notably the USEmpire) under the banner of the Israeli flag and its disgracing of the Star of David, are ‘destroying the world’ of Palestinians in Gaza—and literally scorching the earth. This shows that the extremist Zionists are not truly Jewish, as they have no respect for tikkun olam.

Though not well-versed on the topic, i use the phrase “extremist Zionist” so as to allow for some Jewish Israelis who may have an affinity for the “homeland” yet not support holocaust/genocide; and i’m aware that the premise of Zionism was flawed from the get-go, hence the Nakba, and see Ilan Pappé’s brilliantly researched and powerfully conveyed book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oneworld Publications, 2006).

Herbert Spencer’s and others’ 19th century eugenicist “survival of the fittest” abetted biology trumping God and proclaiming gene superiority which then enabled violent efforts — based on ‘science’ — at controlling the generations of those considered inferior. The root of the word “nation” is “gene-” (also for “generous”) . . . so when a nation deems itself superior or master race, they claim ‘better genes,’ enabling gen(e)ocide, thus a desire to eliminate a people whose genes are deemed unworthy and whose future generations are considered an enemy before they are born!

The Nazis tried to wipe out the Jewish People, gypsies, homosexuals, the so-called retarded. The extremist Zionists are trying to wipe out the Palestinians; that is their stated goal.

According to Robert Inlakesh, journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker:

“If Israel’s intentions were to fight Hamas, they could have done that, yet they chose to inflict a genocide, they chose to blow up the majority of the civil infrastructure and make the territory unlivable, and they are currently choosing to starve the entire population through implementing a complete ban on all humanitarian aid.”

The word “Israel” actually comes from Yishrah El, “upright ones/spirits” and “to struggle or wrestle with God/Spirit.” True Israelis or “Upright Ones” are beyond borders and don’t engage in holocaust or genocide.

Healing the world
Tikkun olam, Hebrew: תיקון עולם \ תִּקּוּן עוֹלָם, 'repairing of the world.'

“The verb “t-k-n” means to fix, and olam means the world (as well as “eternity,” as in l’olam, “forever”). But I [Grace Gleason] have also heard tikkun olam translated as “healing the world.””

A key aspect of that healing/repairing comes from the origin story:

“God then created “vessels” (kelim) in the empty space, but when the Divine Light began to radiate into them, they shattered. This is called the ‘shattering of the vessels’ (Shevirat Ha-Kelim) in Lurianic Kaballah. The shards of the shattered vessels eventually became solids and objects in the world. The re-ascent of the soul is called tikkun…, the process of ‘raising the sparks.’”

“Tikkun olam is a concept in Judaism, which refers to various forms of action intended to repair and improve the world.

“In classical rabbinic literature, the phrase referred to legal enactments intended to preserve the social order. In the Aleinu prayer, it refers to the eradication of idolatry. In Lurianic Kabbalah, the ‘repair’ is mystical: to return the sparks of Divine light to their source by means of ritual performance.

“In the modern era, particularly among the post-Haskalah movements, tikkun olam has come to refer to the pursuit of social justice or ‘the establishment of Godly qualities throughout the world’ based on the idea that ‘Jews bear responsibility not only for their own moral, spiritual, and material welfare, but also for the welfare of society at large.’”

Tikkun olam can be any action, large or small: helping a neighbor, giving someone a ride, stopping a pipeline, finding and living one’s purpose for incarnating, brokering a peace deal between warring countries.

Since “repairing” assumes something always broken, and because of what Taoists call “original wholeness,” some years ago i verbally embarked on another definition for tikkun olam. What i came up with is the following, based on “hidden, eternity, and healing/repairing”: actively caring for the seen and unseen worlds in the past, present and future.

Gathering of sparks
The Tree of Life of Kaballah is also referred to as the Ladder of Lights, so i love the sense of gathering one’s own sparks as well as working with others. We are literally beings of light, as well as other elements, and all of THAT is what NEEDS nourishing nowadays.

Along with the healing/repairing aspect of tikkun olam i include the Native and Taoist perspectives of non-doing, in other words, allowing Mother Earth to heal Herself, the way a cut or burn on human skin knows how to heal itself. Yet the tricky part is that allowing Mother Earth to heal Herself requires way less mining, extractive industries, mountaintop removals, oil spills in waters, and more on the list of human arrogance, greed and idiocy. As well, listening to Mother Earth for guidance about ‘what to do’ rather than egocentrically deciding to destroy a mountain or remove a tree or bush in the yard so everything ‘looks better.’

Each of us has been damaged in some form or another, ranging from personal insult to inter-generational trauma. Our collective well-being, which includes all species, depends on healing/repairing ourselves, finding our inner sparks and nurturing them into flames/lights, as well as gathering with others so as to heal and enhance the lighting of the way.

I respect anyone’s personal relationship with Jesus/Christ yet deplore the institutionalized aspect of the religion that has slaughtered non-believers and forced conversions worldwide for millennia. Similarly i respect what for some Jewish People is a genuine affinity with Judaism in Israel, but i deplore the current holocaust/genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza. “Deplore” is, appropriateely, from “plorare: "weep, cry out.”

Shalom! (Peace, Wholeness, Soundness, Completeness, Well-Being, Safety, Prosperity, Happiness, Friendliness, Welfare, Health, Hello & Goodbye)

PS - To learn more about the actual, non-nationalistic meaning of “Israel”… listen to my 20-minute podcast:
”Yishrah El: The Upright Ones and The Self-Discipline of Shalom”

——
Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) writes, publishes, gardens, travels a holistic mystic Kaballah-rooted pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. To find out more about his writings, publishings, podcasts, presentations… Allbook Books