re: #622 LudwigVanQuixote

Judaism teaches that G-d has no body. He is completely non physical. So our body is not what is made in His image.

There are several things that we are in His image according to Judaism:

1. We name things. There is a very long discussion about speaking and the ability to name and to create, but the short form is that we can form ideas and create new objects and communicate. No act of creation begins without conceptualizing it first and naming something is conceptualizing it.

2. We speak. Again there is a long discussion on the nature of speech from a spiritual level.

3. We love.

4. We have free will. This one gets spoken about the most in this context.

Each of these topics is a ten page essay. There are literally whole books about this in the Tradition. However, the point is that being made in G-d’s image is a function of mind and soul and interaction.

One other note. It is seen as one of the greatest gifts of G-d, by the Tradition that He told us we were created in His image.

Not only should it inspire you with hope for what you can achieve, but if you believe it, then the reason not to harm others becomes clear. Both you and he are created in the same image and are equally loved and equally capable of changing the world for the better. To harm him is to defile G-d and ultimately yourself.

Have you ever thought about the organization that calls itself “B’Tselem” (“in the image”) always defends people whose behavior is more in the image of Satan than in the image of G-d, but they never defend, say, Gilad Shalit, demanding for him the same rights as they demand for others? (Using “Satan” here as a synonym for evil, not to suggest in any way that Judaism promotes Dualism)