What Does It Mean to be Made in the Image and Likeness of the Creator?
Rendered commonly as "image", Tzelem can also mean "form", or "shadow". Often, Tzelem represents the spiritual components of humankind, representing the fact that humans are composed of "soil" (adamah), "blood" (dom), and supernal qualities.
ויאמר אלהים נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו וירדו בדגת הים ובעוף השמים ובבהמה ובכל־הארץ ובכל־הרמש הרמש על־הארץ
And G_D said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness... ”
- Genesis 1:26
What does it mean to be made in the image and likeness of the Creator? Is there a difference in these two words? For centuries, many have pondered this statement, and the Midrashic tradition alone bears the fruits of this intellectual labor.
Image/Tzelem
Rendered commonly as "image", Tzelem can also mean "form", or "shadow". Often, Tzelem represents the spiritual components of humankind, representing the fact that humans are composed of "soil" (adamah), "blood" (dom), and supernal qualities. This does not imply that G_D has a human form or is a human - though one author makes an amazing statement:
That man is G_D's image means that he (man) is the visible corporeal representative of the invisible, bodiless G_D. - David Clines
For those familiar with the Sefirot, it is no wonder they are often represented as the human body, with head, limbs, and torso representing the top-down flow-pattern from Keter to Malchut. Therefore, the human body is itself a representation of how the Creator interacts with the creation.
Likeness/Demut
In Hebrew, the word for "likeness" is Kidmuteinu (כדמותנו). The root of this word is damah, and it seems to be one of many plays on words found in the name "Adam" (mankind).
Damah, gives us a glimpse of the capacity for mankind and our unique ability to transcend the rest of the created world. R. Samuel Hirsch writes,
"Image" (Tzelem) means the outer covering, the bodily form. If all the compassion and love and truth and equity and holiness of the Divine Rule wished to appear encased in an exterior visible form, it would appear in the figure the Creator gave to humankind.
The bodily form of man already proclaims him as the representative of G_D, as the Divine on earth; it is "likeness" (kidmuteinu), and it is such as complies with having the calling to be "godlike". (Damah).
Here we learn that another connection to the name of Adam is "Damah", which represents our capacity to be "godlike".
One of our features that empower this capacity in man is found in another word that shares a connection with the name Adam, and that is "imagination" or "creativity" (Dimyon).
In essence, when humans use their creative capacity for good, we become "godlike" (damah), elevating and connecting with our innate abilities and "likeness" (demut) of the Creator. In doing so, we become a tzelem, a corporeal representative of the invisible G_D, in creation.
