Q&A: “In the Image of God He Made the Human Being”
“In the Image of God He Made the Human Being”
Question
I wanted to ask the Rabbi about the concept of the “image of God” mentioned in the book of Genesis, regarding the human being as possessing an abstract form similar to God. Maimonides already explained in The Guide for the Perplexed that the intention is the divine intellect. I would like to ask whether even today, when the dogmatic rationalism that characterized Maimonides has failed, his explanation can still be accepted, and in addition whether the Rabbi has another explanation?
Answer
I don’t deal with the Bible. It can be explained in all sorts of ways.
Discussion on Answer
I didn’t understand what “another person” means. Other than what? I also can’t answer as long as we haven’t defined / understood what the image of God is.
By “another person” I mean any person simply insofar as he is a human being. From your perspective, is what is called humanity also a revelation of divinity, perhaps in an intuitive way, in the person standing before you? There is a story by Agnon, “From Heaven,” in which he speaks about the image of God that one sees in the person opposite him. Does that speak to you on an intuitive level?
Absolutely. But that isn’t very different from saying that in every person there is something beyond an animal, and therefore he is a moral personality.
Does the Rabbi see the image of God in another person, whatever exactly that may mean?