Orthodox Jewish groups were outraged Wednesday when National Jewish Democratic Council chair Marc R. Stanley tried to garner Jewish votes by implying that U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to back homosexual marriage was intertwined with the Jewish value of Tikkun Ha'Olam.
In Jewish thought Tikkun Ha'Olam – ontological rectification – is the principle of refining the human condition and human society in accordance with the profound principles of righteousness and holiness as expressed in the Jewish Scriptures, thereby ushering in the World to Come.
While frequently mistranslated as "social justice," Tikkun Ha'Olam is a more robust concept than has frequently been co-opted by liberal ideologues to justify behaviors and policies the Torah proscribes.
Agudath Israel of America immediately issued a statement denouncing Stanley's attempt to hijack Tikkun Ha'Olam for political gain.
"In the wake of President Obama’s sharing of his personal feeling that the millennia-old institution of marriage should be redefined in contemporary America, National Jewish Democratic Council chair Marc R. Stanley declared his admiration for the president’s demonstration of 'the values of tikkun olam.'
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