The latest concept to cross my path while studying Judaism in terms of its connection with Christianity is the ancient but recently popularized notion of tikkun olam (literally meaning “world repair”).  Having been a member of congregations that were a part of the Association of Vineyard Churches for over ten years, I immediately recognized the connection with great excitement—this is describing the kingdom of God!  While neither phrase “tikkun olam” nor “the kingdom of God” explicitly appears in the Tanakh, the concept is fully represented and forms a central piece of both the First and New Covenants.  Tikkun olam is used in the Mishnah, and Jewish tradition tells us that the Aleinu (one of the thrice-daily prayers in Judaism) in which tikkun olam is mentioned was authored by Joshua—and no wonder: he was witness to the original pronouncement by God in which His kingdom was first mentioned in Exodus 19:

Here is the translation of the Aleinu:

Now there is an interesting argument about the origin of the concept, the opposing sides of which lie roughly along the lines between conservative and liberal Jews.  You’ll notice in the Aleinu that the phrase is not tikkun olam (to fix the world), but takken olam (build, establish [on a foundation] the world).  The debate is fascinating to me because we are having the exact same quarrel in Christian circles.  It goes something like this:

On the more conservative side, it is argued that we cannot “fix the world;” this is God’s job.  What we can do is proclaim His sovereignty, live by His mitzvot (that is, His commandments or precepts), stay away from evil, and teach our children to do all the same.  Our living by obedience and the proclamation of his sovereignty builds the foundation; but the world will be finally “established” (takken olam) when God comes to reclaim what is His. On the more liberal end of the spectrum, this is not enough.  The world is in desperate need of “fixing”; social injustice, prejudice, greed, and all other sorts of evil run amok across our globe.  As the people of God, it is our duty to right these wrongs where we have the means; furthermore, for some, this value of tikkun olam is the highest value in all of Judaism—even to the exclusion of the rest of the Torah.

 The Christian version of this dispute naturally pulls Jesus into the discussion: did Jesus come into the world literally as an atonement for our sins, or was He an agent of revolutionary social change?  Is it our duty simply to live good lives and preach the Gospel, waiting for Jesus to return and make everything right, or do we grab the forces of evil by the horns and wrestle them to the ground for the sake of a more peaceable, civilized society?

The answer to these questions, obviously loaded for emphasis intended to lead us to the proper conclusion, is “yes.”  We have (as humans have a tendency to do) made this an “either/or” choice instead of a “both/and” statement.  Takken olam and tikkun olam are related and interdependent; no amount of our attempts to “fix the world” have any merit or effect without establishing those efforts under the sovereignty of God (and I would add the necessity of connection to the presence of God as well).  In the same token, it is precisely our submission to the sovereignty of God that compels us with the desire to “fix the world” in the first place.

The Judeo-Christian story tells us that this world was ejected from the shalom (peace, wellness, life, and absolute harmony wrapped into one) of God’s kingdom when our earliest ancestors chose to rebel against God in self-worship at the Garden of Eden.  Since that time, the longing of both God’s heart and our hearts was to see that kingdom restored.

Finding favorable hearts in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, God raised up the people of Israel and established them as the root—the base people in which the kingdom of God would be made manifest.   It was always His intention to include the rest of the world in His kingdom, as the Aleinu asserts; and God called His people to be “…a light to the Gentiles.”  He gave them the Feast Days as a roadmap of His redemptive process; He gave them the moral part of the Law to reveal His own character and to set a standard marking Israel as His kingdom people; and He gave the priestly part of the Law to provide them a means of communication despite their sin.

He did these things because He wanted the whole world to see what it is like to be a citizen of His kingdom; to let us know that He would never stop pursuing us.  He knew, of course, that Israel would go off into idolatry and fail not only in being a light to the Gentiles, but by be being absorbed in darkness themselves.  So He found David, another man after His own heart, and made a promise to him that his Heir would sit on the throne of the kingdom of God forever.

The prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel in particular) spoke of a New Covenant and a Messiah that would finally bring the complete restoration of the kingdom of God:

The sages studied these texts and postulated who this Messiah might be:  He is obviously the Heir of David, but also He is Almighty God, the Everlasting Father.  How could this be?  Some believed there would be two Messiahs:  Maschiach ben-Yosef (the Suffering Servant who would wipe away the sins of Israel) and Maschiach ben-David (the Conquering Hero who would sit on the throne of his father David and restore Israel to supremacy among the nations in the kingdom of God).

Of course, Jesus did not read the entire passage.  This was on purpose.  In his life, Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies related to Maschiach ben-Yosef, but not any related to Maschiach ben-David.  If Jesus had fulfilled the role of the Hero Conqueror without first completing His work as the Suffering Servant, no one would be admitted into the kingdom of God.  So, there are not two Maschiachim, but one Messiah who fulfills two roles.  For the shalom of the kingdom to return, and for all of mankind to have the opportunity to become citizens of that kingdom, the salvation provided by the Suffering Servant has to come first, followed by the judgment meted out by the Hero Conqueror.  Jesus fulfilled the first role, and promised to return and fill the second; but in between, there had to be time for the world to see and accept what God has done for us in the New Covenant.  This is why it has taken so long for Him to return.

One day, the last half of the passage in Isaiah from which Jesus read will be fulfilled as well:

Shavuot is the Feast in which God kicked off takken/tikkun olam.  Orignially prescribed in Leviticus 23 as one of the annual Feast Days and one of the three main annual pilgrimage festivals where every Jewish man was to present himself to the presence of God as a God-worshiper, Shavuot holds an incredibly important place in the Judeo-Christian story:

So what constitutes tikkun olam?  There are all kinds of opinions across the spectrum of both Judaism and Christianity.  The general consenus is some sort of service related to social justice:  feeding the hungry, healing the sick, helping the poor, defending the oppressed, etc.--though this is wide-ranging.  Some even feel (not my opinion personally) that smoking medicinal marijuana is somehow related to tikkun olam!  

The key goes back to the original discussion between takken olam and tikkun olam.  Activities that are truly part of the kingdom of God come always come from a desire to establish the world under His sovereignty.  You can't have tikkun olam without takken olam!  Simple philanthropy does not count--one can be 'good' for the sake of being 'good'--motivated from a desire to appear philanthropic, to feel good about oneself, or to earn brownie points with God--but these do not arise from the desire to see God glorified and His kingdom advanced.  True tikkun olam comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit--the result of which is a life connected to the active, living presence of God, hearing His voice, doing His will as a citizen of the kingdom of priests--a holy nation dedicated to making Him known.

Such a life resonates with the Aleinu prayer.  Rabbi Sha'ul (the Apostle Paul of Tarsus) repeated an early Christian prayer, which is a direct application of the Aleinu to Jesus:

If one reads the last part of the highlighted section in Hebrew, it would say "...that Yeshua Ha Maschiach is Adonai."  Not just a lord of something, but YHVH--Adonai specifically.  No doubt Paul believed that Jesus was the God of Israel, the King of the Universe, with whom we participate in tikkun olam.  Happy Shavuot!