‘Tikkun’ is a concept from the Jewish kabbala that means something like 'putting things right'. What exactly has to be put right is a question of perspective. The widely-respected Talmud student Haim-Aaron feels that God has given him a second chance after he has a heart attack - the result of a rigorous regime of fasting - which he miraculously survives. His studies no longer fascinate him; his interest in the world outside the Yeshiva has suddenly been awakened.
His father watches the changes with great suspicion. Are his son’s aberrations a punishment for the fact that he himself defied God’s plan by reanimating him? Or has his son been sent off the straight and narrow path by God in order to have experiences that bring him closer to his faith? How do you obey the will of an unknowable God? Carl Theodor Dreyer's influence on that theme is as unmistakable as it is on the poetic stylisation with long, static black-and-white shots and minimalist acting.