In Lurianic Kabbalah, the "repair" is mystical: to return the sparks of Divine light to their source by means of ritual performance.
A conception of tikkun olam is also found in the Aleinu, a concluding part of most Jewish congregational prayer, which in contrast to the Mishnah's usage, focuses on the end of time.
[11] In recent years Jewish thinkers and activists have used Lurianic Kabbalah to elevate the full range of ethical and ritual mitzvot into acts of tikkun olam.
However, if this is done in a manner that separates the concept of tikkun olam from its other meanings as found in rabbinic literature and the Aleinu prayer, there is a risk of privileging actions that have no real religious significance and represent personal agendas more than Judaism itself.
Author Lawrence Fine points to two features of Lurianic Kabbalah that have made it adaptable to ethical mitzvot and social action.
[17][18] The original context of the Aleinu prayer, in the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, is accompanied by the hope that "all [people/creatures] will form a single union to do Your will with a whole heart".
For example, in the American Conservative movement's prayer book, Siddur Sim Shalom, "A Prayer for Our Country" elaborates on this passage: "May citizens of all races and creeds forge a common bond in true harmony to banish all hatred and bigotry" and "uniting all people in peace and freedom and helping them to fulfill the vision of your prophet: 'Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they experience war anymore.'"
In the liberal movements of Judaism, most especially in the United States, this sentiment is especially embedded in the idea of acting compassionately for all people, as for example in the 1975 New Union prayer book, used by the movement for Reform Judaism Gates of Prayer, which includes the text "You [Lord] have taught us to uphold the falling, to heal the sick, to free the captive, to comfort all who suffer pain".
Perhaps the first Jewish thinker to use the phrase "tikkun olam" in the modern sense of "fixing the world" by building a just society was Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935).
[17] However, while Bardin was a significant popularizer of the term, one also finds it being used in similar manner in the late 1930s and early 1940s by Alexander Dushkin[21] and Mordecai Kaplan.
[22] As left-leaning progressive Jewish organizations started entering the mainstream in the 1970s and 1980s, the phrase tikkun olam began to gain more traction.
Maimonides writes that tikkun olam requires efforts in all three of the great "pillars" of Judaism: Torah study, acts of kindness, and the ritual commandments.
[26] Some Jews believe that performing mitzvot will create a model society among the Jewish people, which will in turn influence the rest of the world.
The Jewish Federations of North America, one of the top ten charities in the world, counts tikkun olam as one of the three main principles under which it operates.
Similarly, the American Jewish World Service supports grassroots organizations creating change in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Mirsky writes:The rich tradition of tzedakah is a model of communal social responsibility in the absence of a strong welfare state; it also connects to the burgeoning area of Micro Philanthropy, which pools large numbers of small donations resulting in more direct interaction between donors and recipients, or "givers" and "doers," higher resolution in the focus of giving and the creation of new networks of cooperation.
As examples, prayer either inculcates a relationship between people and God or strengthens beliefs and faith of the one who prays, and keeping kosher or wearing tzitzit serve as educational symbols of moral and religious values.
Jane Kanarek, a Conservative rabbi, argues that discussions of tikkun olam in the Mishnah and Talmud point to the importance of creating systemic change through law.
Michael Spiro, a Reconstructionist Jew, draws on a conservative tradition that emphasizes free markets precisely because they believed that was the path to the greatest public good.
Elon University professor Geoffrey Claussen has asserted that concepts of tikkun olam have inspired Jewish fundamentalists such as the convicted terrorist Meir Kahane and monarchist Yitzchak Ginsburgh.
According to Claussen, "while visions of tikkun olam may reflect humility, thoughtfulness, and justice, they are often marked by arrogance, overzealousness, and injustice.