Michael Lerner, founder and editor of Tikkun magazine - a bi-monthly Jewish critique of politics, culture, and society - and renowned author of numerous works on spirituality, faith, and cross cultural relationships, is expected to speak here at Yeshiva University sometime in early March. He will lecture in an academic classroom environment and will focus on enriching students' perspectives on subjects including sociology, statistics, organized crime, criminal justice, and tikkun olam, among other issues related to the Orthodox world.

Lerner, a spiritual progressive following in the best Jewish tradition of the prophets, is on a mission to heal our ailing religious, political, and social world. Lerner, currently the Rabbi at the Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in San Francisco, is a lifetime social activist who found his roots in the sixties antiwar campaign and civil rights movements. It is with those ideals - which have faded into the milieu of soulless spirituality, compulsive capitalism, and dehumanizing war in this postmodern world - that he operates.

Utilizing Tikkun magazine, his works, and social gatherings as a medium, he sincerely and optimistically attempts to form a global Tikkun Community of individuals who are committed to changing the world. He systematically challenges an obstinate world set in its ways to re-examine its bearings and regain sight of its original goal - spirituality, thus perpetuating universal healing and love.

Lerner claims that he is "not unique;" rather, he functions "in the same tradition as Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Daniel Boyarin, and Abraham Joshua Heschel." Much like his predecessors, mentors, and contemporary activists, Lerner takes an active role in synthesizing his ideas and bringing them to fruition. As was mentioned earlier, he is currently establishing a global Tikkun Community. In an effort to branch this community to New York, he recently held a weekend Tikkun conference in Manhattan's Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and in B'nai Jeshurun Synagogue.

Lerner's expectations of New York City Jewish interest were confirmed as people turned out in the hundreds throughout the weekend to participate in the conference that set out "to foster an environment where people are as committed to internal, spiritual work as they are to their work in the external world" and to build "a network of people who are committed to the healing and transformation of our world, and who have a sophisticated set of intellectual, spiritual, psychological, and emotional tools." He contends that "social change and inner change go hand in hand. We must build a movement in which we can talk about love and caring." Lerner furthermore asserts that the Tikkun Community stems from awareness of the following fundamental reality:

"The sources of external injustice, suffering, and ecological numbness are to be found not only in the economical and political arrangements, but also in our alienation from one another, in our inability to experience and recognize ourselves and each other as holy, in our inability to respond to the call of our universe which bids us to deeper levels of consciousness and love, and in our inability to overcome our own egos and see ourselves as part of the Unity of All Being. We need a spiritual consciousness along with a political consciousness if we are to heal and transform the world."

The Tikkun Community is "trying to create something that doesn't have an exact analogue in contemporary life" and that "represents an unashamedly utopian picture."

Lerner's message, his core vision, and every platform on which he stands bring him to the global center of Torah U'Madda: Yeshiva University. The institution that tries to bridge traditional Judaism and secularism in this postmodern, unforgiving world is a perfect stage for the man who is trying to accomplish a parallel goal. His importance in contemporary society is inarguable. Besides his magazine - which reaches over a million readers worldwide - his numerous works, and his constant coverage in the media, he has been called the foremost Jewish thinker in America and was recently honored by Utne Reader as one of America's one hundred most visionary thinkers.

He is coming to initiate discussion and offer reasons for a need to reexamine certain values held by people today. In his talk at Yeshiva, in which he will talk about his vision to the sociology, statistics, criminal justice, and organized crime classes, he will relate some of his issues to the Orthodox world.

He will explore in an open dialogue the issues of materialism and selfishness and how the American value system is trying to corrupt the Orthodox world and how the American value system contributed to creating divisions between the Jewish world. In addition, Lerner will offer solutions of how we can bring a new "bottom line" of spirituality to the rituals of Judaism, thus bringing love and spirituality to the workforce.

Furthermore, he will address his thoughts on how the mitzvah of ve'ahavta la'ger connects to the tikkun vision and why it's important for a Jew to love his fellow Jew.

Apropos to these classes, he will discuss topics relevant to the social sciences in the post-September 11th period in the U.S., concerning the profound need for Tikkun in a world seemingly prepared for endless bloodshed and war. His uncompromising goal is to promote global healing and love. Furthermore, only after a close and honest self-examination can one offer answers to the aforementioned issues. One cannot argue these claims on the basis of how Orthodoxy and the world are supposed to be, only on what they currently are.

Finally, if you feel that his claims are unwarranted, or if you are simply interested, please be sure to attend this discussion as a member of the social science classes. It is anticipated to be a fascinating evening of education.

The author is a Yeshiva College Junior.