We will begin to analyze today the text that deals with the creation of the first human beings. Genesis 1:27 “And God created man in His image … male and female He created them.”
There are two concepts that define in this pasuq (verse) the fundamental characteristics of the human being.
1. To have been created “in the image” of God.
2. To have been created as male and female
Let’s start with the first point. There is a rich variety of interpretations as to what “the image of God” means (צלם אלוקים). However, despite the diversity of opinions, there are two points that almost all rabbinic interpretations accept.
(a). צלם אלוקים Is not a physical image or likeness, since God has no body or materiality. The Divine image points to a spiritual and/or intellectual element that makes a human being similar to God.
(b). The Creation of man in this verse is narrated in the context of the creation of other living creatures. The “Divine image” in man appears in opposition to the absence of that image in animals. It is as if the text is saying: “Unlike animals, human beings were created in the image of God. ”
Let us see the different interpretations of צלם אלוקים which can be seen as complementary.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN: For Rashi, the Divine image in man should be understood as the seal of the Creator in man (דיוקן יוצרו). In other words, when we see the human body and especially human intelligence, we see a reflection of the Creator. A human being bears an invisible seal that says: “Made by Divine Design”, which reveals its Creator.
IMMORTALITY: For Eben Ezra the Divine image refers to the human soul, which unlike all other earthly creations, is immortal.
FREE WILL: For Maimonides and other rabbis like the Meshekh Hokhma, the Divine image is the supernatural intellectual capacity of the human being and the possibility to think linguistically. “Thinking” allows man, among other things, to be aware of himself and to conceive the existence of God. Unlike humans, animals do not think. Animals perceive images, stimuli or sensations associated mainly with survival and procreation, and react. Not being aware of themselves and not able to understand linguistically what happens to them, animals lack the power to control their reactions. A human being, thanks to his or her super-natural rational ability, while exposed to similar external stimuli, can create a space between the stimulus and the response to this stimulus. This space is what we call “free will,” and it is only possible thanks to man’s ability to “think”.
The paradox of man’s creation, its place between the natural and the Divine, was analyzed by the Hakhamim of the Midrash. On the one hand, they said, man has been created with the same elements of other inferior beings (tahtonim). That is, body, instincts and drives, all earthly and worldly. On the other hand, human beings were endowed by the Creator with a “higher” element (min ha’eliyonim), something “Divine” that allows him to react in an elevated way, and to control those “inferior” impulses.
Sexuality is a good illustration of this scenario. When a man does not exercise control over his appetites and let himself to be driven by them; when man does not create a space for the intervention of his super-natural power, free will, between the stimulus and the reaction to the stimulus, he forgoes his soul and becomes another element of the animal kingdom. Note that unlike other religions, Judaism does not see as an ideal to renounce sexuality or the satisfaction of other drives. The Tora teaches man to educate his impulses. This education is known in the Tora as Qedusha, a very important Hebrew word that is often translated as “holiness.” Qedusha becomes manifest when the Divine image in man is the dominant force.
In the case of sexuality, for example, when we have the Tora as our guidance to determine when, how and to what extent we satisfy our earthly impulses, the life-generating act ceases to be a natural act of biology and becomes an act of Divine Creation.
(To be continued…)
