Tikkun Olam
By Elise Seyfried
When I can’t sleep at night, the TV in my head is well-stocked with episodes of America’s Biggest Mess-ups, starring me. Adulthood has provided a motherlode of regret, remorse, and embarrassment. I often attach labels like “bad parent,” “sloppy worker,” or “crummy wife” to my days. Using these negative modifiers has become second nature, unfortunately. Not only am I not my own best friend, but I’m also not any kind of friend to myself at all. And I often feel just as down about the world in which I’m living.
After I’ve played all of the adult memories, I can reach back into my youth for a wealth of additional examples. Take the time I forged my father’s signature on a test paper. I was in first grade, and I think the “Tom Cunningham” in all printed capital letters probably tipped Sister Vincent off. Then there was the eternal fighting with my parents and sisters, so very often instigated by things I would do: teasing my siblings, talking back to Mom and Dad, arguing over chores and schoolwork and curfews. I’d unpack an impressive laundry list of sins in the confessional, then promptly go out and do it all again, sometimes starting before I even got out of the church.
On other restless nights, the waters of my guilt recede after washing a crushing sadness ashore. I’m sad because the world is such a mess. Sad because my kids will inherit this mess. Sad because I am so ill-equipped to do much about it.
But I recently learned about something beautiful and inspirational, a thought to help banish some of my sorrow’s shadows. It is the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam. The English translation is “repairing the world.” Here is the Jewish legend that inspired Tikkun Olam.
Early in the history of the world, something dreadful happened that shattered the light of the universe. This original light broke into millions of pieces and scattered into sparks across all of creation. Mankind’s great purpose is to look for, and collect, those pieces of light in every corner of the earth. The sparks dwell in all of the people we see and know and whose lives we touch. In gathering up the light, we participate in repairing the world.
Tikkun Olam claims this is our purpose in life. Every one of us. We are both capable and qualified. We begin by finding and honoring our own sparks of light. I might find some of mine if I peek under the layers of excessive self-criticism and self-pity. I look at my wonderful grown children and realize I’ve been a good mother. I think of my relationships with people struggling with mental illness, and know I am a compassionate listener. After I find my sparks and you find your sparks, we can live further into our grand purpose, our divine calling. We can search for light, for goodness: in our families, our friends, our neighbors, and, yes, our enemies.
So, now, when I can’t sleep at night, I sometimes think of another image. I see myself, I see all of us, gently gathering up the light around us, fireflies twinkling in the darkness. We are fishers of light like children on a summer night, seeking a bit of relief from our afflictions.
I see the ball of light growing larger with each small, but vital, contribution. And my own inner light brightens and illuminates even the darkest shadows in the ocean of my soul. When I think of Tikkun Olam, I feel a new power, the power of a flawed child who is invited to help restore this imperfect world so it can become the shining whole it was meant to be. Through this sacred work we are bathed in the light and the goodness we have collected. We, too, are repaired. We, too, are restored.
Elise Seyfried is Spiritual Formation Director at Christ’s Lutheran Church in Oreland, PA. She is also a writer, mom of five, and grandma of two. Elise is the author of four books of humorous spiritual essays. Elise’s essays have also appeared in Living Lutheran, Guideposts, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Purple Clover, Modern Loss, Chicken Soup for the Soul and many other publications. Additionally, she writes devotions for The Word in Season, and has penned hundreds of skits and plays for churches with Clergy Stuff. Learn more at www.eliseseyfried.com.