The Story of Tikkun Olam – Gathering the Light
At the beginning of time, God’s presence filled the universe. When God decided to bring this world into being, to make room for creation, He first drew in His breath, contracting Himself. From that contraction darkness was created. And when God said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), the light that came into being filled the darkness, and ten holy vessels came forth, each filled with primordial light.
In this way God sent forth those ten vessels, like a fleet of ships, each carrying its cargo of light. Had they all arrived intact, the world would have been perfect. But the vessels were too fragile to contain such a powerful, divine light. They broke open, split asunder, and all the holy sparks were scattered like sand, like seeds, like stars. Those sparks fell everywhere, but more fell on the Holy Land than anywhere else.
That is why we were created — to gather the sparks, no matter where they are hidden. God created the world so that the descendants of Jacob could raise up the holy sparks. That is why there have been so many exiles — to release the holy sparks from the servitude of captivity. In this way the Jewish people will sift all the holy sparks from the four corners of the earth.
And when enough holy sparks have been gathered, the broken vessels will be restored, and tikkun olam, the repair of the world, awaited so long, will finally be complete. Therefore it should be the aim of everyone to raise these sparks from wherever they are imprisoned and to elevate them to holiness by the power of their soul.
Amen.
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Thanks for the visit and comments Kit! 🙂
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The repair of the world is a marvelous ideology. I love all things ancient and mystical. ❤ Beautiful share.
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It represents an evolution in our understanding of human nature and our relationship to the divine. I sometimes think the thing that frightens people most is our divinity.
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I’ve heard and read of Tikkun Olam many times, but I did think this was particularly well written.
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Yeah. It’s the best explanation I could find.
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Reblogged this on Survivors Blog Here.
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Thank you for the re-blog! I hope your Holiday is going well!
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Wow, what a beautiful story. Let’s look out for each little spark… and we must not forget the ones fallen inside of us.
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That’s so spot on, Erika. We can’t let our own light die.
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No, never ever! Light is who we are. If we don’t shine we refuse to be!
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You are light, Erika. I think someone left that as a comment on one of your quotes. It’s true.
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Oh my, your ray of light just touched my heart, Robert. It is you and our friends who help each other to let our lights shine even brighter. I wish that one day we can all meet!
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I’d like to meet folks, Erika. I’m very shy about meeting people.
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I would be happy to meet you and so would all your followers. It is exciting to meet people we have never met in person before but already feel like friends.
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I’ve seen the photos and everyone looks so pleased. I’d really like to meet some of the people I’ve grown so fond of on WordPress
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I still hope that one day a worldwide event will be organized!
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Well, if Trump fires Mueller people from all over the U.S. are planning to launch a protest. It looks like people in Paris will join us. Trump is a global menace. The resistance to him should be global.
https://act.moveon.org/event/mueller-firing-rapid-response-events/search/
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I don’t know anyone who likes him. But bloggers can meet anyway. We should not make it depend on a Trump, right?
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I didn’t mean to suggest that the only reason for bloggers to meet is a Trump protest. I’m sorry if I did. I think meeting other bloggers is a great idea regardless of Trump. I find the idea exciting and anxiety provoking.
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Oh, no, no worries! I just thought we mustn’t let anyone keep us from doing what we love in general. Be sure, the anxiety would disappear instantly 😄
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I’m pretty sure it would.
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Raising those sparks, wherever I can.
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Indeed, what a wonderful tale.
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Conceptualizing the good as gathering the light of God makes the idea easy to grasp. When we treat ourselves and others well we bring the light of God into their lives. I think this is the meaning of the story of the Blind Man:
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Intriguing I’ve not heard of this before!
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Our mission to gather the light of God was one of my favorite Sunday School teachings.
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