Healing the World

One mitzvah leads to another mitzvah. - Pirke Avot 4:2
It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to ignore it. – Pirke Avot 2:21

Every Friday afternoon, the children of Charlotte Jewish Preschool gather for Shabbat. They light candles, they bless challah, and they say the Shema in Hebrew, English, and Sign Language. (Somehow all of the two-year-olds know the signs, but after nine months I still can’t get it right!) But before they say any of these blessings, before they light any candles or sing any songs or welcome Shabbat in any way, our preschoolers give tzedakah. As they do so, they sing a song whose jingly melody masks its profound meaning:

One mitzvah leads to another.
If you give of yourself, you can help each other.
One mitzvah leads to another.
To be righteous is very good.

The song is based on a quotation from the Mishnah, which reads in full, “One mitzvah leads to another mitzvah; one transgression leads to another transgression.” Bear in mind, this was written 2000 years before anyone ever saw the movie Pay it Forward or slapped a “Random Acts of Kindness” bumper sticker on their car! The idea that good deeds are reciprocal, and that we can make the world better through our actions, is embedded deeply within our Judaism.

The kabbalists used to tell an interesting interpretive story about the creation of the world. They taught that God created the world by forming clay vessels to hold divine light. This perfect, holy light – a symbol of God’s presence - was meant to radiate out and fill the world. But as God poured the light into the vessels, it was so powerful that it could not be contained. The vessels shattered, and sparks of God’s divine light became embedded throughout the world of matter. According to tradition, the role of human beings is to free those sparks by performing mitzvot. If we pick up a hammer to build a home for someone who has no home, we release one spark to return to the Source. If we use a pen to write a check to tzedakah, we similarly return the divine light to God. The kabbalists asserted that once human beings, through their actions, have liberated all of the light, the Messianic Age will come. Then, and only then, will our broken world be repaired.

There is much about our world that is in disrepair: hunger and homelessness, hatred between peoples, violence in society, an environment in shambles. We need not try to make an exhaustive list, because we all know the problems. Judaism teaches that it is up to us to do tikkun olam, to begin to repair the world. A mitzvah, then, is much more than a mere good deed. Mitzvah – which actually means “commandment” in Hebrew – is the means by which we become God’s partners in moving the world from brokenness to wholeness, from pain to healing. Our sacred responsibility to care for our world and its inhabitants is at the heart of what it means to be Jewish.

Mitzvah Day is Temple Beth El’s response to that Jewish imperative to repair the world. Every year we get together – for one day – to do tikkun olam projects around the city. The projects address different issues – from hunger to domestic violence, from pollution to Darfur. This is our chance to spend time together, get out into the community, and make the world just a little better. No matter who you are or what your passions are, there is a mitzvah project for you!

Mitzvah Day is May 18. Register online.

Please join us as we begin to heal the world, one tiny mitzvah at a time.

L’shalom,
Rabbi Micah