Restoration of the World

I remember this story I heard, and I’m not sure who told it to me. It could have been Bernie Roshi or perhaps it was Rabbi Singer. In any case, it’s a Jewish teaching called the Tikkun Olam in Hebrew, about the restoration or repairing of the world. It goes something like this.

In the beginning, there was just darkness. It was the source of life, known as the Ein Sof. Our world was created from this sacred darkness. It emerged out of this darkness as the ten thousand things, as a great ray of light. But then, there was an accident. The vessel containing this light broke, and the wholeness of the world was scattered into thousands of fragments of light. And these fragments tumbled into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden to this day.

According to this story, our whole human race is a response to this accident, so each of us is born with the capacity and potential to find this hidden light, and to lift it up, and make it visible again. In so doing, we restore the world to wholeness again. So you are the healer the world is waiting for.

It’s not about doing something grand and dramatic. It’s about proximity. It’s about healing the world that touches you. And that’s where your power lies hidden.

It’s easy these days to be dispirited and despair at the problems we face in the world. So I think it’s very common for most of us to feel that we can’t really make any difference. Perhaps if we knew more, if we were richer, or if we knew the right people, we could make that difference. But what if who you are now, is enough to make a difference? What if you are what is needed to heal the world? How would you live your life?

Roshi Robert Joshin Althouse