the following story was Told to Dr. Miriam Remen by her Grandfather on the occasion of her 4th birthday. She shared it in an interview with Krista Tippet on Public Radio. Dr. Remem is a physician who practices in the San Francisco area.
"In the beginning there was only the holy darkness, the Ein Sof, the source of life. And then, in the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of a thousand thousand things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light. And then, there was an accident, and the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke. And the the light of the world was scattered into a thousand thousand fragments that fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden until this very day."
"According to tale, the whole human race is a response to this accident. We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again and thereby to restore the innate wholeness of the world. It's a very important story for our times. This task is called tikkun olam in Hebrew. It's the restoration of the world. This restoration is a collective task. It involves all people who have ever been born, all people presently alive, all people yet to be born. We are all healers of the world. This story opens a sense of possibility. It's not about healing the world by making a huge difference. It's about healing the world that touches us, the world in our proximity."
"It's a very old story, that comes from the 14th century, and it's a different way of looking at our power. We all feel that we're powerless to make a difference, that we need to be more somehow, either wealthier or more educated or experienced than the people we are. Yet, according to this story, we are exactly what's needed. Just wonder about that a little, what if we are exactly what's needed? What then?
