This post is based on a class in memory of my father, Paul Michael, given in Kehillat Hod veHadar on his first yahrzeit. Click here for a source sheet.
Genesis 1
tantalizingly tells us that humanity was created in God’s image, but the Torah never tells us what that means. In chapter 9, creation in God’s image is the reason for the prohibition against killing humans, and that is the last mention of the idea in the Bible. This silence created a broad canvas for commentators and philosophers to express their opinions and define the “the image of God,” the human traits that reflect the Divine. But my claim here is that no explanation was given because none was needed. For the people who first heard:
וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָם׃
And God created the human in God’s image, in the image of God, God created them; male and female God created them. Genesis 1:27
The language of being created in a
God’s image was familiar, because it was regularly used to describe kings, in both Mesopotamia and Egypt.
By declaring that the first humans, from all others descended, were created the divine image and reaffirming that claim after the flood when Noah re-establishes the human race, the Torah democratizes (Haim Cohen and Moshe Weinfeld, Olam HaTanakh [World of the Bible]) not only the image of God, but also sovereignty. Whatever political arrangements people later make are human arrangements, lacking any “divine right of kings.”
The entire [human] race collectively stands vis-à-vis God in the same relationship of chosenness and protection that characterizes the god-king relationship in the more ancient civilizations of the Near East. “The image of God” is [God’s] chosen viceroy… Creation ends, as it were, with the commission of human agents to rule the world in the name of the creator God. (Creation and the Persistence of Evil [1994])
And Prof. Tikva Frymer-Kensky:
The essential position of humankind in the cosmos is not the farmer, but the executive. This is spelled out: humans are to be the tzelem Elohim, the image of God. Ṣalmu is a term we know from Mesopotamian inscriptions, where the king is the “image” of the god. It means the avatar of God on earth, the one who keeps everything going properly. (“Ecology in a Biblical Perspective” in Torah of the Earth [2000].
I purposely quote both of these scholars because they come to the discussion from very different perspectives. Levenson is known to be a social conservative, while Frymer-Kensky was a staunch feminist. Their similar readings reinforces the point that this idea is truly in the text and not being read into it by interpreters with an “agenda.”
Nonetheless, some environmental activists have claimed that the Bible is at fault for modern ecological disasters because it allows humanity to exploit nature ruthlessly (for example, Prof. Lynn White, Jr. (1967) “The historical roots of our ecologic crisis”), and some rabbis agree that humanity does indeed have that God-given power. For example, Nachmanides (R. Moshe ben Nachman or Ramban; Spain, 1194–c. 1270) commenting on Genesis 1:28: “And subdue it:” wrote “He gave them power and rule over the earth; to do whatever they wanted with the beasts and the swarming animals and all of those that slither on the ground; and to build and to uproot and plant and to quarry copper from its hills and so on.”
However, many traditional Jewish commentators disagreed vehemently with
the position. For example, Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra (Spain, 1089-c.
1167) made the following comment on Psalm 115:16:
השמים שמים לה' והארץ נתן לבני־אדם
The heavens belong to the ETERNAL, but the earth God gave over to humanity.
Ignorant people think that the humanity’s dominion over the Earth is like God’s dominion in heaven, but they did not speak correctly because God’s rule is everywhere and the meaning of “the earth God gave to humans” is that people are like the clerks of God on earth over all that is on earth, and everything is [ruled by] the word of God.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, many rabbinic voices renewed the call to take human responsibility for the natural world, in increasingly stronger language. For example, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, wrote in one of his first books in English:
But freedom in its turn implies responsibility, and man is responsible for the way in which he utilizes nature. It is amazing how thoughtless modern man is of his responsibility in relation to his world. He finds before him a world crammed to overflowing with wonderful materials and forces, and without hesitation or scruple he grasps at whatever is within his reach. Omnivorous in his desire, unrestrained in his efforts, tenacious in his purpose, he is gradually changing the face of the earth; and there seems to be none to deny him or challenge his eminence. Deluded by this apparent greatness, we give no thought to the question of what basis there is for our assumed right to possess our universe. Our own wayward desires and impulses, however natural they may be, are no title to ownership. Unmindful of this, we take our title for granted and grasp at everything, never questioning whether this may not be robbery. Powerhouse, factory and department store make us familiar with the exploitation of nature for our benefit. And lured by familiarity, the invisible trap for the mind, we easily yield to the illusion that these things are rightfully at our disposal, and think little of the sun, the rainfall, the water courses, as sources by no means rightfully our own. (Man is Not Alone (1951), pp. 290-91)
Rabbi Robert Gordis:
[Humanity] is the responsible ruler of the created world. [Hu]man’s special position in the cosmos endows him with special responsibilities, both to his own species and to all living creatures. He has an obligation to preserve the life with which he has been endowed and so to order his society that it promotes the life and well-being of its members. His dominion over the earth and its inhabitants is not a license to destroy, but a responsibility to conserve the earth and its inhabitants, that which God is created. To read into this passage permission for man to ride roughshod over other living creatures or to despoil the earth of its treasures, or to pollute air and water, is to pervert the glory of creation that is clearly indicated in the closing verse… Possessing a superior endowment, [humanity] is empowered not to be a ruthless tyrant, but a responsible ruler of the world of nature. (Judaic Ethics for Lawless World (1986), p. 73)
Rabbi Shai Held:
The problem with the notion of human stewardship over creation is not that it authorizes human exploitation of the earth and abuse of the animal kingdom—which, as we have seen, it emphatically does not. The problem is, rather, that we have not really taken it seriously enough to try it. In modern times, amidst an almost manic need to produce and consume more and more, we have all too often lost sight of what has been entrusted to us. What we need is not to abandon Genesis 1 but to return to it and to re-discover there what we have forgotten or failed to see altogether. We are created in the image of God and are thus mandated to rule over creation; this is a call to exercise power in the way Tanakh imagines the ideal ruler would, “in obedience to the reign of God and for the sake of all the other creatures whom [our] power affects.” The approach laid out here overcomes one form of anthropocentrism—the crude notion that everything exists for us, and that we are therefore free to consume and dispense with it as we will–while affirming another: In contrast to the rest of creation, human beings are responsible and answerable for our actions. (Bold added. “Created In God’s Image: Equality and Responsibility” (2015) and The Heart of Torah, vol. 1 (2017), p. 11).
It should now be clear that accepting and acting on this responsibility is urgent. If not now, there may not be another chance.
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