Along with tikkun olam, another oft-repeated motto of Jewish progressives is "Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof." I remember it on a banner that fellow New Jewish Agenda members marched with in the 1980's. The slogan has often been translated as "Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue." But what does tzedek really mean?
According to Rabbi Jill Jacobs, tzedek is not an abstract notion of justice: it is a relational one. She cites Moshe Weinfeld of Hebrew University:
...the concept refers primarily to the improvement of the conditions of the poor, which is undoubtedly accomplished through regulations issued by the king and his officials, and not by offering legal assistance to the poor man in his [sic] litigation with the oppressor.
Jacobs herself concludes, "The task of the just sovereign, whether human or divine, is to establish a system of government that protects the vulnerable." (42)
Now, we may remember that in biblical times, many Jewish sovereigns did not establish that kind of government. Prophetic voices called them to task. "The prophetic quality consists of an ability to imagine the world as God might see it and to measure the existing world against the divine ideal of a world without oppression or inequality." (47)
Sometimes, prophets call on God to do justice; more often, they call on human rulers to be righteous. Sometimes, they inveigh against empty rituals, but nearly always, they point to the potential of ritual to sharpen our sense of what it means to do tikkun olam.
How do these concepts help us shape modern-day institutions and make policy? That is what the rest of the book is all about.
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