When it comes to people and interpersonal relations, there is one Jewish value which serves as a foundation for all others: B’tzelem Elohim - Created in the Divine Image, first cited in Genesis 1:27. All our other values about how we treat people and how we should treat ourselves stem from this idea: that all human beings are created in the “image of God.” But we also know from Judaism that God has no image, literally! So what does it really mean to say in the “image” of the Divine? The word b’tzelem can also mean resemblance, similarity, form, or likeness of something. In other Biblical contexts, we see the word used about idols people make, likenesses of gods.
In a sense, then, this is a bit like breaking the fourth wall of religious thinking thousands of years ago. People imagine gods in their own image, then create physical objects as images of those gods. Over time our Jewish civilization develops, and we canonize in our sacred texts that God created us in the Divine image, and we are not supposed to create images of the Divine. Instead, we are the images of the Divine. Rather than viewing an external physical object as a representative or symbol of a god, we are supposed to become the physical manifestation of God in the material world. In the context of the Creation story, this would commonly be understood in Judaism to be part of our duty as partners with God to help “finish” the works of Creation.
All our other responsibilities and ethical principles can be understood to rest on this bedrock: that we have all the agency we need to make good choices and do our best to make the world better through our actions: in how we treat ourselves, in how we treat others, and in how we treat the rest of the world. There can be no higher human moral authority than the spark that resides in each one of us, and yet at the same time we do not always agree or get along. So how can we, as humans, create social systems which maximize positive outcomes while also maximizing protection of individual freedoms so every person’s spark is given a chance to shine? This is the baseline question of our existence, and in Judaism we have a longstanding tradition of sharing the tent with a wide range of opinions and perspectives, because diversity is important in Judaism.
No one person can do it all, or solve all the problems of the world, but in the complex interactions between people there lies the potential to solve any problem in the realm of the possible. And yet, to ensure our best efforts on a group level, each of us must strive our hardest to take care of ourselves on an individual level. In Hebrew, Tipul Atzmi means something akin to self-care, which in “Living Our Values” we represent as Love Thyself. Taking care of ourselves means all the things we might expect: actively making time to self-audit, being honest and self-aware, making plans for our self-improvement and sticking to them, and generally caring about ourselves on emotional, material, and spiritual levels. Judaism believes it is important to give equal consideration to the conceptual principle that each of us is created in the Divine Image, and to the pragmatic principle that each of us needs to take care of ourselves in all ways. If we fail in one of these principles, on some level we are also failing the other.
As we enter the month of Elul, we prepare ourselves to do the inner work needed to satisfy both principles. May we be blessed with the energy to engage with these principles deeply, and the courage to make true and lasting changes for ourselves, which will in turn better our whole world.
Rosh Chodesh Tov, wishing a fruitful new month of Elul to you all,
Cantor Sarah Beck-Berman
