The following content has been provided by the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg.

So first of all thank you for inviting me as well and to Daghaba for the kind New Year's wishes.

Yes, as already mentioned, at the moment we are between the Jewish high holidays.

Yesterday Jews all over the world celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Today some Jewish communities in the diaspora are celebrating the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

And in nine days time we will be celebrating Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

And Jewish religious thought these days have a special significance.

According to the Talmud on Rosh Hashanah, three different books are opened.

Depending on his or her behaviour and actions, the individual is judged and inscribed in one of the books for the following year.

The first book is a book of life where in the right years are inscribed immediately.

In the third book the wicked are recorded and as Psalm 69 puts it, are, quote, blotted out of the book of the living forever.

The second book is meant for those in between.

They are given time until Yom Kippur to become, well, at least a little bit more righteous

and be inscribed in the book of life which is finally sealed at the end of Yom Kippur.

As a large majority of us is neither totally righteous nor totally wicked,

the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are very important.

These so-called Yamim Norahim, days of awe, are the time to reflect upon one's behaviour and actions,

to repent and to apologise to God as well as to fellow humans.

So this is probably the perfect time not only to think about the individual's responsibility for the world and the society at large,

but also about the contributions religions and religious communities can make to the common good.

Judaism offers a traditional concept for the salvation and wellbeing of the world, Tikkun Olam.

Literally meaning repair or restoration of the world, this concept is not entirely coherent and has been changing over time.

Tikkun Olam makes one of its earliest appearances in the Elenu prayer,

which was probably written as early as the second century.

Originally Elenu was part of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy,

but later gained popularity and since about 1300 concludes every Jewish prayer service.

The Elenu contains the phrase, L'taken Olam B'mehut Shaddai,

meaning to fix or to establish the world under the kingdom of God.

The main topic of the paragraph however is idolatry and the wish that it,

quote, will be swept away and false gods will be utterly destroyed.

According to the Elenu, Tikkun Olam is reached,

quote, when all the people of the world will call out God's name.

In our modern pluralistic society, the denigration of other religions as idolatry

and the demand for the destructions appear intolerant and utterly unacceptable.

Therefore some Jewish communities, especially from the non-orthodox denominations,

have rephrased the text or substituted it all together.

Instead of stressing the differences between Jews and Gentiles,

they emphasize similarities and the equality of all peoples and religions

and express their wish for peace and cooperation.

In some midrashim that are commentaries on the Torah,

Tikkun Olam means the preservation of the physical world.

For example, according to Midrash Bereshit Rabah,

God created the rain for the sake of Tikkun Olam.

So maybe we should appreciate rainy weather more than we do.

Mishnah and Talmud, however, use a term in totally different contexts.

Most commonly, Tikkun Olam appears in the context of divorce.

The Mishnah forbids certain practices which are legally allowed,

but which might lead to uncertainty on whether a person is still married or divorced

and all that for the sake of Tikkun Olam.

In this sense, Tikkun Olam means the prevention of a person's uncertain status