The cool kids in the Jewblogosphere , which I’m just starting to navigate into (thanks mom for the advance recon!), are debating whether social justice is central to Judaism. It starts here, they’re going all week, and Canonist has already chimed in a bit. They raise different points that I might take on later this week, but I’m going to tackle something else today.

The entire debate makes the same mistake that the Jewish community always does by confusing social justice with Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). Tikkun Olam is making the world a better place, very broadly defined. It influences everyday interactions like how you perform at work, how you treat your neighbors, what you do with your empty beer can, and whether or not it’s OK to cheat on your taxes, just to name a few.

In contrast, social justice is still very narrow, and usually means leftist/progressive/liberal/socialist political leanings. Income redistribution is seen as social justice, but it doesn’t usually make the world a better place (see, Zimbabwe). If you count equal rights in the picture, you get another amorphous concept. Should we treat everyone equal, or make everyone equal? Because social justice is so narrowly defined, and because there’s real philosophical differences that usually emerge from the popular definitions, it’s really tough to make it a viable central theme for the Jewish community.

Making the world a better place, in contrast, is simple to understand and gives powerful meaning to peoples lives. Contrary to what you may think, nobody else in the marketplace of religions is selling it, and it has wide appeal.

Here’s an anecdote to illustrate the difference. An recent college graduate becomes an engineer and figures out how to make a manufacturing process 7% more efficient. He has just made the world a better place, because now you can make 7% more product for the same amount of money, but he probably hasn’t made society any more just (and he may have even made it less just). For his efforts, he is rightfully compensated by the company he works for, and he takes $5000 of that money and donates it to a charity which uses local labor, and therefore can build and stock an entire library for his contribution.

Another graduate strongly believes in social justice, and decides that education in the developing world is important to them. Because of this, they forsake the salary and benefits of a first job, and instead travel to the developing world to build a school. They want to get their hands dirty. Though they’ve never worked in construction, jointly with a group of 20 other recent graduates, they spend 8 months in Ethopia helping a Western project manager to construct a rudimentary building that a village can then use as a schoolhouse. Of course, they couldn’t get paid to do this - they’re making the world more just, so they borrow money from their parents to pay the organization supporting them about $4000 to cover food and lodging, as well as another $1000 for transportation to get to Ethiopia. Remember it took 20 kids to do this.

I don’t mean to criticize the graduate who spent time volunteering abroad (OK, I do). More than that, I mean to criticize the communal values that define Tikkun Olam in such a way that the volunteer is somehow seen as helping the world more than the engineer. Whether or not Tikkun Olam was central to ancient Judaism doesn’t matter, it’s certainly central to modern Judaism, and it’s what Judaism brings to the table better than any other religion (or non-religion) competing for people’s attentions.

Judaism offers a lot. It is a culture rooted in laws for every day life, a revolution at its time, that are based around values that are still relevant today. What Judaism offers that gives meaning to peoples lives is an end state not of another world, but of this one. I don’t mean to get too theological in this (maybe another day), but I see Judaism as a partnership with God to make the world a better place. Does campaigning for equal rights do this? Absolutely, but it’s not the only way. Does buying only fair trade coffee? I’d argue not so much. But that argument - about how we’re going to make the world a better place - is another example of the richness of Jewish culture. It’s just one for another post.

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