Tikkun olam — repair of the world — is a Kabbalistic concept that has become, in contemporary Jewish social justice discourse, one of the most generative frameworks for understanding the obligation to act in the face of injustice. The original concept held that the divine light had been shattered at creation and that human beings, through righteous action — mitzvot, ethical living, justice work — participate in the ongoing project of gathering the scattered sparks. Whether the concept is used in its mystical or secular register, its ethical weight is the same: the world is broken, repair is possible, and we are responsible for it.
Each step builds on the last.