COVID Announcement:
As many of you may have heard, New York has been experiencing a growth in COVID cases in the past few weeks and Governor Cuomo has issued new regulations and guidelines for worship. While our Shul and community remains relatively stable, the threat feels particularly close to home as many of the more critical area codes are geographically close to our neighborhood. In our own neighborhood, Rabbi Korn of Chabad at the Bowery tested positive for COVID before the last days of Yom Tov, and we are all praying for his speedy Refuah Shaleimah. In the meantime, Chabad at the Bowery has closed and taken steps to ensure proper tracing and safety measures are taken by those potentially exposed, and no congregants have tested positive or shown any symptoms. In solidarity, and to provide some breathing room after a particular packed holiday season, Rabbi Bellino at Sixth Street Synagogue will be taking this Shabbat off before returning to regular services next week.
We at Stanton are blessed to have had a small and reliable attendance over the holiday season that leaves us less exposed, and thankfully, are able to remain open as usual. That said, this should serve as a reminder to all of us to continue to take COVID seriously and stay up to date on developing news. If you feel sick, please stay at home, and if you are coming to Shul, mask-wearing over both your mouth and nose remains non-negotiable. Additionally, do your best to register for services in advance, as it both allows us to properly prepare as well as gives us a record for potential contact tracing, should, God forbid, that be necessary. We are thankful to be able to safely meet during this difficult time, and we will continue to take advantage of this special privilege to pray for the speedy recovery of those who are sick, and for the hopeful end of this plague as soon as medically possible.
Drashah:
“‘Racism makes a liar of God,’ she told me. ‘It says not everyone is made in his image. What a horrible lie from the pit of hell.’”
Such were the words of Gloria Purvis, a black Catholic radio host, quoted in the New York Times as struggling with racism and racial tensions within her own community in the wake of the collective reckoning America has been going through over the past few months. Ms. Purvis highlights how bigotry and racism run counter not just to basic intuitive morality, but to the explicit religious value system laid out in the Bible itself, as Parashat BeReishit tells us that God created man BeTzelem Elokim, in His image, and therefore, all humans are surely deserving of being treated with dignity. While not speaking from a Jewish perspective, Ms. Purvis’ appeal to the idea of Tzelem Elohim, that man was made in God’s image, is a focal point of this week’s Parashah, and a shared religious tenet across the Jewish-Christian divide. In our own faith, Eugene Korn, in an article of Tradition (31:2) entitled “Tselem Elokim and the Dialectic of Jewish Morality,” argues “The Torah doctrine that every human being is created in the image of God is the conceptual key to a religious morality with humanitarian values.” Surely this seems to be one of the principals of faith that we and our co-religionists can agree to.
However, when one looks at the historical development of this idea in Judaism, the concept of “Tzelem Elokim” as the basis for an ethic of equality seems a bit more tenuous. The actual substance and content of what exactly man’s “Tzelem Elokim,” or innate divine image, is has been hotly discussed and debated over the centuries. Maimonides, predating Immanuel Kant by nearly 800 years, lays out a proto-Kantian theory of humanity when he states in his Mishnah Torah (Yesodei HeTorah 4:8) that human rationality is what is intended by God’s gift of “Tzelem Elokim.” Humans imitate God in their ability to conceptualize, comprehend, and cogitate, according to the Rambam.
While at first glance that might seem like a universalist principle to unite humanity, Maimonides definition of Tzelem Elokim actually leads to a number of problems. Similar to the critiques Kant would face after expressing his rationality-based philosophy of humanity, Maimonides implicitly excludes those who are differently cognitively abled with his strict definition of human rationality, and opens the door for inherently subjective discussions of one’s cognitive abilities being an important factor in determining how one should be treated. Indeed, it is unsurprising that a few hundred years later, following in the tradition of Maimonides, Don Isaac Abaravnel states (BeReishit 1:27) that women should not be considered to have a Tzelem Elokim– and therefore, would be excluded from any calls for universal equality or fair treatment– as Abravnel painfully posits that women are cognitively limited and incapable in comparison to men.
But even without Rambam’s rationalist conception of humanity’s divine image, we still see Tzelem Elokim being invoked in a way to exclude others. In 16th century Poland, R’ Yehudah Loeb in his Derech Chaim (Avot 3:14) argues that Tzelem Elokim only applies to Jews, as non-Jews are not even classified as an “Adam,” a human. But well before the 16th century, this ambiguity about the humanity and dignity Tzelem Elokim should prescribe to people of other faiths is actually inherent in an ambiguity in the Mishnayot themselves. While the Mishnah in Sanhedrin (4:5) learns from the creation story that saving even one life is like saving an entire world, there are two different textual variants as to whether the Mishnah’s language is “one life,” in general, or “one Jewish life” in particular. According to this latter textual variant, Tzelem Elokim and the equality of man in the creation story of BeReishit would hardly serve as the basis for a contemporary ethic of equality!
None of this is to criticize or attack the tradition itself, or its interpreters. Of course there are many different factors that could contextualize all of these claims, and there are many voices in the tradition that have been ardent in criticizing these exclusionary perspectives and reaffirming the universal value of all humans. As just one example, Rabbi Israel Lifschitz (19th c. Germany) in his Tiferet Yisrael has an extended essay on the Mishnah in Avot outright rejecting and combating the perspective of the Derech Chaim that limits Tzelem Elokim to only Jews. However, what this analysis does highlight is an important lesson. Any principle of humanity or worth that seeks something in the Other before assigning value is subject to abuse. If Tzelem Elokim is understood as a quality that others must have to be considered equal dignified humans, then the task of those who support discrimination and bigotry is merely to demonstrate how some people do not reach the bar necessary to qualify as Tzelem Elokim. In other words, we should never expect anything of someone else– not even Tzelem Elokim– as a precondition to treating them with dignity and love.
But if that’s the case, what then is the significance of the Torah telling us that God installed man with Tzelem Elokim? To answer that, we have to look past the first time the phrase is mentioned, in creation, towards later on in the Torah. A few chapters after creation, after God has brought the flood, wiped out humanity, and reintroduced Noah and his family to rebuild the world, the Torah again invokes Tzelem Elokim. There, the Torah says (BeReishit 9:6):
שֹׁפֵךְ֙ דַּ֣ם הָֽאָדָ֔ם בָּֽאָדָ֖ם דָּמ֣וֹ יִשָּׁפֵ֑ךְ כִּ֚י בְּצֶ֣לֶם אֱלֹהִ֔ים עָשָׂ֖ה אֶת־הָאָדָֽם
“One who spills man’s blood, by a man his blood shall be spilled, for in the image of God man was made”
The closing clause in this verse, “for in the image of God man was made,” is ambiguous. Clearly that clause is a justification of something. But what is it justifying? While many interpret this verse as saying “since man has Tzelem Elokim, therefore it is wrong to murder him” I woud like to argue for a different interpretation. The Torah has no need to tell us that murder is wrong, because Noah and his family already knew that. It is basic human intuition that murdering another human is wrong, and this is especially true after God has just destroyed the world for, among other sins, interpersonal moral corruption. The immorality of murder does not need explanation or justification.
Given that, I would like to argue for a different interpretation of the verse. The explanatory clause at the end of the sentence– ”for in the image of God man was made”– is not a justification as to why murder is wrong, but rather, a justification as to why “by man his blood shall be spilled.” In other words, the invocation of Tzelem Elokim is explaining and justifying what empowers humans to take justice into their own hands and enact punishment against their fellow. Until now, all punishments and justice in the Torah have been administered exclusively by God. God punished Adam and Eve, God punished Cain, God punished the generation of the flood. The innovation of this Passuk, and the lesson God is teaching humanity in its very infancy, is that justice is not God’s project alone. Until now He’s been covering the slack for us, but going forward, post-flood humanity is expected to hold itself accountable.
This responsibility to judge your fellow, try him for murder, and administer the appropriate punishment is a weighty task. How can man tread into the territory of the divine and step on the metaphorical toes of God, the true judge? What qualifies man to serve as an advocate for justice, and a judge of the necessary steps needed to be taken in that pursuit? Ki BeTzelem Elokim Bara Et HaAdam, for in God’s image man was made. The Torah is telling us that the divinity within us– the Tzelem Elokim in every single human, is what qualifies us, and charges us with the responsibility of seeking out justice and taking steps to actualize it in this world. In other words, Tzelem Elokim is not a quality that is being attributed to the Other in an attempt to justify why we should treat them well. Rather, Tzelem Elokim is a charge upon all of us, to find that divinity within ourselves and stand up for justice whenever necessary. I have Tzelem Elokim, and therefore, I am not okay with systemic injustice and not willing to stand for it. Thus, rather than serving as a basis for “Torah-sanctioned” discrimination, Tzelem Elokim serves as a charge and mission on each and every human to live up to the humanity God gifted them, and carry on his divine mission of creating a more just and whole world.
This interpretation is not just a cute vort, or a nice idea, but is latent in the tradition itself. Targum Onkelos, arguably one of the earliest Torah commentaries we have, translates “BeAdam” in the above verse– the Torah’s imperative that specifically another human should spill the blood of his murderous fellow– as meaning that “judges” should spill the blood, conflating the Tzelem Elokim of the verse with the court system. This interpretation is ultimately accepted as the mainstream Halakhic interpretation of the verse, as our rabbis interpret “BeAdam Damo Yishafeich” as meaning “with witnesses in court,” taking Onkelos’ court-focused interpretation and expanding it. Indeed, Rabbi Yosef Bechor Shor, one of the early Tosafist commentaries on the Torah, comments on the verse and says “[Man is made] BeTzelem, insofar as he is able to judge and adjudicate.” R’ Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, in his work Meshech Chochmah, explicitly applies this interpretation to non-Jews too, saying that the existence of non-Jewish court systems is a fulfillment of this Passuk.
Thus, we see that rather than a quality we ascribe to others, Tzelem Elokim is a goal we should be constantly striving to actualize within ourselves. The Torah tells us that all of humanity– all genders and faiths– are characterized and defined by their capacity for judgement and their ability to seek out justice. As followers of the Torah and aspiring Ovdei Hashem, all of us should work to stand up against bigotry and injustice at any level we encounter it. Only if we are able to carry on our mission, individually and communally, to stand up for justice and cultivate our Tzelem Elokim, will we be able to actualize divinity in this world and make sure that God is not, in fact, a liar.
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