We Are Unstoppable Because God Is With Us

After the election Chaaz Quigley, a Black queer Jewish writer and activist, released a sigh. A sigh filled with the understanding that being Black in America is a different kind of spiritual exhaustion. 

But then Quigley remembered an important teaching from Judaism called “Tikkun Olam.” 

Tikkun Olam means to “repair the world.” It’s believed God stored divine light in special vessels. One day some of these vessels broke. 

Divine light attached itself to the broken shards. The shards spread, becoming the material world. Humans were then tasked with repairing the world. 

Tikkun Olam teaches that every repair, big or small, has a ripple effect. Repair isn’t just for yourself but for the world.

A synonym for repair is “reconstruct.” Reconstructing something requires reimagining a way forward. Reimagining is one of our many ancestral superpowers. 

We’ve seen our people reconstruct Black liberation throughout history. 

As a kid, Quigley believed God lived in everything and faith offered a divine world of possibilities. Now he’s trying to return to his childhood mindset. 

To believe there’s still divine potentiality during trying times is true faith. This is how our ancestors reimagined a way forward time and again. This is how we will repair our world: by reconstructing a Black liberated future that gives breath to divine possibility.