This book is all about r~~l~ T~D- Tikkun Olam, Fixing the

World. It is about doing good, and, hopefully through doing good,

becoming good people. The Shabbat prayerbook expresses this theme

in a phrase from the Zohar (2:206) N O"[II ~,~ N I piD I,~IN ]~~,

"Allow us [O Holy One] to be counted among The Good People."

I believe that Fixing the World is easier to do than is generally

perceived. It isn t necessarily easy, but it is easier than most people

would think. I want this to be an eminently practical book. I think it

will work for individuals, for teachers and students, for parents and

children, for activists, as well as for those who have not yet been chal-

lenged by the battle for The Good and The Just and The Right. 1 + 1

= 3 has one basic purpose: to make it easier to change the world. It

should allow us to focus better on our ~~~-Mitzvah capabilities. "~

turn, it will change us, reinforcing in ourselves the sense that we a

able to far surpass any Tikkun Olam goals we may have set for our-

selves in the past.

Hopefully, it will also nourish our sense of vision. The late

Shraga Arian, ~"t --my teacher, the teacher s teacher, and educator s

educator -- addressed this all-important topic of vision in a most elo-

quent passage:

My favorite pastime was daydreaming I am standing with a

large group of people looking out toward the horizon. Everyone is

saying that it can t be done; that we can never reach the far-off

mountains. I step out of the crowd and announce that it can be done;

that I am now going to walk toward the mountains and take with me

those who are unafraid and undaunted. I turn my back to the crowd

and with head held high, I walk toward the mountains. Twenty or

thirty clear-eyed young men and women break out of the crowd; they

beg me to take them with me. I say nothing; together we walk toward

the horizon as the group behind us stares at us in awe and wonder

The other day, when my young son remarked that he might

become a meteorologist when he grows up, I said to him, "Good,

you ll make me very proud. Then there will be two of us looking up at

the stars."