Tikkun

Tikkun, “repair” or “restoration”, is in the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria the work of mending a broken world. In Luria’s account, after the withdrawal of tzimtzum, divine light was poured into vessels which could not contain it and shattered. Sparks of holy light fell among the shells (qelippot) of the lower worlds, and the whole of creation fell into disorder and exile.

Tikkun is the gathering of the scattered sparks and the restoration of the divine order. It is begun by God, but completed by human beings: every commandment fulfilled, every prayer said with right intention, lifts the sparks and repairs the worlds. The coming of the Messiah is the completion of this work, not its cause.

Lurianic Kabbalah thus gave every Jewish act a cosmic meaning. Hasidism took up the idea in the teaching that holy sparks are present in all things, to be raised in eating, work and conversation. The modern phrase tikkun olam, “repairing the world”, has an older rabbinic background, and in recent usage often means social action.