Tselem Elokim Sources and Worksheet Made in the Image: A Yom Iyyun on Disability Awareness and Inclusion Hebrew College/Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses 2/27/2017

(כו) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ וְיִרְדּוּ֩ בִדְגַ֨ת הַיָּ֜ם וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּבְכָל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וּבְכָל־הָרֶ֖מֶשׂ הָֽרֹמֵ֥שׂ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ (כז) וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃ (כח) וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ אֹתָם֮ אֱלֹהִים֒ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר לָהֶ֜ם אֱלֹהִ֗ים פְּר֥וּ וּרְב֛וּ וּמִלְא֥וּ אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ וְכִבְשֻׁ֑הָ וּרְד֞וּ בִּדְגַ֤ת הַיָּם֙ וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וּבְכָל־חַיָּ֖ה הָֽרֹמֶ֥שֶׂת עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

Genesis 1:26-28

(26) And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.” (27) And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (28) God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth.”

אמר ר' יהושע בן לוי בשעה שאדם הולך בדרך, איקוניא של מלאכים מהלכין לפניו, ומכריזין ואומרים תנו מקום לאיקוניא של הקב"ה.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says that when a person walks on the road, they are preceded by a company of angels who proclaim: "Make way for the image of the Holy Blessed One!"

Midrash Tehillim 17:8

תוספתא מסכת סנהדרין (צוקרמאנדל) פרק ט הלכה ז

היה ר' מאיר אומ' מה תלמ' לומר כי קללת אלהים תלוי. לשני אחים תאומים דומין זה לזה אחד מלך על כל העולם כולו ואחד יצא לליסטייא לאחר זמן נתפס זה שיצא לליסטיא והיו צולבין אותו על הצלוב והיה כל עובר ושב או' דומה שהמלך צלוב לכך נאמר כי קללת אלהים תלוי.

Tosefta Sanhedrin 9:7

Rabbi Meir said: What does it mean that “a hanging corpse is an affront to God”?

It is like two brothers who were twins and

looked alike, one was the king of the whole

world and one became a thief. After some time, the thief was caught, and they were about to crucify him. Every passerby said: It seems that the king is being crucified!

תלמוד ירושלמי נדרים פרק ט: הל' ד

/ה"ד/

ואהבת לרעך כמוך ר' עקיבה או' זהו כלל גדול בתורה בן עזאי אומ' זה ספר תולדות אדם זה כלל גדול מזה .

Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 9:4

Rabbi Akiva taught: “Love your neighbor as

yourself” (Leviticus 19). This is the major principle of the Torah. Ben Azzai says “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him” (Genesis 5:1). This is an even greater principle, because it encompasses the other.

JERUSALEM TALMUD, NEDARIM 9:5 ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18) – Rabbi Akiva says, this is the fundamental principle of the [whole] Torah, because if you keep this commandment, you will be saved from multiple transgressions. Ben Azzai says, ‘This is the book of the generations of man’ (Genesis 5:1) – so as to teach you that all human beings came from a single parent – is a greater fundamental principle than ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’, since at the end of that verse it says, ‘In the image of God he made him [man].’ When a person [lit. man] considers that, he will take extreme care for the dignity of another person. The reason for this principle being more important is that it is bipartite: a person who takes care for another person’s dignity, aware of the dignity of that person’s creator (since the person is in the image of God), will take care all the more not to defraud God, and will be energetic to perform commandments in order to honor The Holy One

שמות כ׳:ג׳-ד׳

(ג) לֹֽ֣א יִהְיֶֽה־לְךָ֛֩ אֱלֹהִ֥֨ים אֲחֵרִ֖֜ים עַל־פָּנָֽ֗יַ (ד) לֹֽ֣א תַֽעֲשֶׂ֨ה־לְךָ֥֣ פֶ֣֙סֶל֙ ׀ וְכָל־תְּמוּנָ֡֔ה אֲשֶׁ֤֣ר בַּשָּׁמַ֣֙יִם֙ ׀ מִמַּ֡֔עַל וַֽאֲשֶׁ֥ר֩ בָּאָ֖֨רֶץ מִתַָּ֑֜חַת וַאֲשֶׁ֥֣ר בַּמַּ֖֣יִם ׀ מִתַּ֥֣חַת לָאָֽ֗רֶץ

Exodus 20:3-4

Exodus 20:3 You are not to have any other gods before my presence.

Exodus 20:4 You are not to make yourself a graven-image or any figure that is in the heavens above, that is on the earth beneath, that is in the waters beneath the earth;

“Why are graven images forbidden by the Torah?” I once heard my great teacher Abraham Joshua Heschel ask. Why is the Torah so concerned with idolatry? You might think that it is because God has no image, and any image of God is therefore a distortion. But Heschel read the commandment differently. “No,” he said, “it is precisely because God has an image that idols are forbidden. You are the image of God. But the only way you can shape that image is by using the medium of your entire life. To take anything less than a full, living, breathing human being and try to create God’s image out of it - that diminishes the divine and is considered idolatry. ” You can’t make God’s image; you can only be God’s image."
Arthur Green, From http://www.cori.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/rabbi-arthur-green.pdf

7 Can you image what a world it would be if we could train ourselves to hear those angels? If we could see the heavenly host standing in front of everyone here, pointing to each one of us and saying “this is the image of God?” Can you image how we would treat each other then? “Great is human dignity,” the Talmud says, “since for its sake we may violate a prohibition of the Torah.”18
From "Walking with Justice Edited By Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson and Deborah Silver"
http://www.aju.edu/media/pdf/walking_with_justice-social_justice_-_an_introduction.pdf

Have you ever felt your own tzelem elokim violated or betrayed?
Have you ever witnessed someone else’s tzelem elokim violated?
When you imagine various kinds of disabilities, visible and invisible, physical, cognitive or emotional, would that effect-- and how might that effect, in your mind, the person’s tzelem elokim in the world? (for you or for society).
Is there a state of being in which tzelem elokim is more fulfilled in a human being than another?
What does tzelem elokim depend on?