Introduction To The Tikkun Community Of Toronto

In the Tikkun Community we seek to heal and transform our inner selves, our social relationships, our politics, our global economy, and our planet. Our name comes from the Hebrew word tikkun, which means to heal and transform.

People are invited to learn about our vision and, should they choose to do so, to join the Tikkun Community. Joining would involve helping further develop this vision, helping build the local and global communities, and promoting the process of healing and transformation in the world.

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The local and global Tikkun communities can be described, briefly, as follows:
The Tikkun Community is an interfaith organization of people who seek a world of peace, justice, generosity, kindness, ecological sanity, love, gentleness, non-violence and celebration with a sense of awe and wonder at the grandeur of the universe.
We believe that the interests and the security of all nations and peoples can be achieved by a global redistribution of wealth and the elimination of poverty, hunger, homelessness, inadequate health care and inadequate education. We seek to convince people and governments to become a force for ecological sanity by supporting global agreements to repair the damage done to the planet by 150 years of irresponsible industrialization, and by limiting a corporate globalization that is ecologically and morally insensitive.
We are a progressive pro-Israel, pro-Palestine alternative and we are committed to fighting against anti-Semitism and anti-Arab prejudices. We oppose the demeaning of Israelis or the demeaning of Palestinians.
We insist on the sanctity and preciousness of the earth and all life forms; on the unity of all being; on the equal right of every human being on the planet to a world based on kindness, love, and generosity; and on a social change movement that speaks to the deepest spiritual, ecological and social justice needs of humanity.

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The objectives and basic principles of all Tikkun communities, local and global, are laid out in detail in the Tikkun Community Founding Statement / Core Vision, as first presented at the end of 2001 and available on the global Tikkun website or in hard copy from a member of the local community. In order to provide a taste of what we're trying to achieve, we're highlighting two extracts from that document:
Creating an international community of people who start with agreement on the points in this document can generate generous amounts of comradely love and solidarity. We expect that in the Tikkun Community we will find ourselves learning from our dialogue with each other, having intense conversations, listening to each other's formal presentations and, equally importantly, listening to each other's life experiences and current struggles. Our community will only be sustainable if it provides many opportunities to laugh with each other, to pray with each other, to meditate together, to sing and dance together, and to experience each other as sources of surprise, joy, and transcendence.
And: It is our contention that social change and inner change go hand in hand.

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Information about the local community (structure, functioning, etc.) can be accessed through personal contact or through our website at and e-mails can be sent to the community at mail@tikkuntoronto.com . We also publish a flyer providing a brief overview of our community.

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Prior to joining the local community, prospective members are expected to make themselves familiar with our core vision and fundamental principles by reading the Tikkun Community Founding Statement / Core Vision. Participation in the community is open to all who support our vision and principles and who participate in a manner based on: mutual respect; active and compassionate listening; allowing opportunities for all to speak, share and be involved; and collective and democratic decision-making.

As with all groups, conflicts arise within the community from time to time. Our objective is to work together to find solutions to such conflicts through dialogue, in a loving manner, and in a supportive context.

To quote from our Founding Statement / Core Vision:
We see the educational, consciousness-raising, and linking work we do as a critical contribution to social healing. We see ourselves as a corps of spiritual transformers who share a fundamentally similar perspective and wish to work more effectively by supporting each other, learning from each other's experience, and more deeply internalizing the ideas and ideals we hold.
And: For all of us, the Tikkun Community is a place where we can talk about these ideas and give each other mutual support for being unequivocally utopian and committed to large scale tikkun olam (transformation of the world).
And: We hope you will join us, and we pray for guidance and wisdom, humor, and love as we build this exciting venture together.

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Participants in Spirit Groups are encouraged to make a long term commitment to the group and, barring unforeseen circumstances, to attend meetings on a regular basis. The focus in these groups is generally on our inner lives: on developing a spiritual consciousness; on providing consistent support, caring and nourishment for each other; on reaching for deeper levels of consciousness and love i.e. on the more personal aspects of our lives. Participation is, therefore, one of sharing thoughts, opinions, intuitions, insights, emotions, etc. of sharing heart and mind and soul through word, action, silence, etc. The content of meetings is decided within each group, in a manner consistent with our vision and principles.

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Action Groups also encourage members to consider participation as a long term process (if appropriate) and to attend regularly. Here, however, while these groups also include spiritual activities as part of each meeting, the focus is on our outer lives on the social, economic and/or political aspects of our lives on combining a spiritual consciousness with a political consciousness in order to create actions that help heal and transform the world. The content of these meetings is also decided within each group, again in a manner consistent with our vision and principles.

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Community members are kept abreast of events and of updates to our local website through weekly e-mail newsletters. Members are encouraged to provide their e-mail addresses for this purpose. (Please note that our mailing list is not shared with any other organization and you will not receive any e-mails from elsewhere through our list.)

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Local community members are expected to make an annual contribution towards the functioning of our community for community gatherings, conferences, communication expenses, etc. While $80 is the suggested contribution, members are free to decide, based on their personal situations, how much they'll actually contribute. Contributions are collected in September of each year. These funds are kept in a bank account created by the treasurer.  

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Members of the Tikkun Community of Toronto are encouraged to:
Join the global Tikkun Community (membership in the broader community includes a subscription to Tikkun magazine)
Subscribe to Tikkun Magazine (preferably by joining as above)
Subscribe to TikkunMail (the wider community's occasional e-mail newsletter).
This can all be done through the global Tikkun website at , itself a resource worth checking occassionally.

Tikkun Community of Toronto members, individually and/or as a community, work in partnership and coalition with other individuals and groups striving for justice and peace in the world. We seek to create momentum by collaborating with those who have goals similar to ours.

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As we work together to build the global Tikkun Community, members here in Canada, in the USA and elsewhere write articles, e-mails or other items (for publication in Tikkun magazine, for example). Some of these pieces of writing are written from a perspective that assumes that the reader resides in a particular country (e.g. Canada or the USA) and that the issues being addressed are local to that country. Other pieces of writing are more universal in context. As Canadians, we contribute to this collaboration by providing our own perspectives on local and global issues and by considering the relevance of ideas from other settings to our local situations.

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