Judaism's second big idea: that we all possess the image of God within us. How this idea revolutionized human meaning and purpose, flipping the natural world of "might makes right" on its head.
A FAITH GARDEN:
Unnatural Rights
Guardians of the Galaxy. I know it’s a Marvel movie franchise. But it also describes how Judaism views our role in the world. Guardians of the Galaxy. Judaism promotes an empowered role for me in life. It optimistically believes I can change at least my little piece of the world for the better. While that idea is inspiring, viewing me as someone filled with powerful and meaningful potential, is it true? After all, what’s so unique about me that justifies this “make or break the world” role? Am I really up to the task demanded by this empowerment model?
Don’t get me wrong. From nature’s perspective, Guardians of the Galaxy is a huge exaggeration – we certainly don’t control all of nature’s forces here in this world, let alone throughout the galaxy. I’m not trying to undermine the earlier “we don’t know” podcast episode. However, Judaism’s empowerment idea focuses on a different dimension – the interpersonal dimension, arguing that we each possess the superpower of consciousness – allowing us to shape interactions and interpersonal well-being. Judaism believes that God purposely created us (or should I say “evolved us”) to be superheroes – to be guardians of the interpersonal galaxy. Not everyone agrees with that assessment. If you conducted a survey, you would no doubt find that many Religions (both God-oriented and totally secular ones) view me differently – concluding that I am essentially greedy, selfish, sinful and even abusive – and also reasonably concluding that I am dreadfully unsuitable to repair or redeem this world. That’s why, after empowerment, this is Judaism’s second big idea. Judaism focuses on our gift of consciousness, declaring that I have a duty and obligation to engage in Tikun Olam, Hebrew for… fixing our broken world, because I possess a spark of the Divine within me. I possess a soul that differentiates me from the rest of the animal world. This idea is so foundational, so essential to my role in life, that Judaism embedded it in its “creation of the world” story. There, the Bible records a radical claim that changed the direction of human history:
וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ, בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ: זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה, בָּרָא אֹתָם
“and God created humans in God’s image;
in the image of God were humans created, both male and female…”
Regardless of our differences and distinctions, we were all created equally in God’s image. The authors of the Declaration of Independence copied this Biblical model when they formalized the same idea at the founding of the United States: “we hold these truths to be self-evident”, they said, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
Of course, thousands of years before Thomas Jefferson, a nomadic tribe was engaged in The Choice – engaged in the universal search for a framework of meaning to live by. This tribe introduced the idea that each and every one of us possesses the “image of God” – Tzelem Elokim in Hebrew, which injected a compelling assertion about humanity: our consciousness not only enables us to discover a world of meaning; its existence actually creates our world of meaning.
How does our conscious soul create our world of meaning? Those lines in the Declaration of Independence highlight an important tension and a key question. First the Declaration says “we hold these truths to be self-evident” but then it says we are all created equal and our creator endowed us with basic, bedrock rights. Well, which is it? Is it rationally self-evident? Or is it based on the God/human relationship – where we were created by God with an element of equality and endowed by God with fundamental rights? I think by the time of the American Revolution, it was both. You see, some ideas become so absorbed into the cultural bloodstream, so second-nature, we simply assume society cannot exist without them. Over time, we take these ideas for granted. We take them to be self-evident. In the West, the ideas of human rights and human moral equality are perfect examples of this phenomenon. How could we think any differently, you may ask?
Well, let’s pause for a second and look around. The natural world around us is dominated by hierarchies and diversity. The idea of equality, the very concept of moral egalitarianism, couldn’t be further from intuitive or scientific truth. The natural world is viciously and unapologetically hierarchical. Watch ten minutes of any National Geographic show and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Some beings are stronger than others, some faster, some smarter, some taller, etc.
As long as we’re bringing movies into today’s podcast, let’s remember how The Lion King sugar coated this relentless hierarchy when it sang of – the circle of life. At any moment, some are on the upswing of that circle… and some are headed downward. Darwinism and evolutionary science are built on the unavoidable idea of inequality. Only the strong survive in the long run. It turns out, the meek don’t inherit the earth; they were yesterday’s dinner. And our human world is, by nature, no different. We live in a hierarchical environment.
So where did these “self-evident” ideas of universal human rights and equality come from? Why are we so morally outraged when the strong promote and protect only themselves, and when they step on and destroy others in their wake? Why are the Harvey Weinsteins of the world so repugnant to us?
If you read through the post-Enlightenment history of human thought, it is amazing to see how many thinkers desperately try to rationalize that we are not only essentially equal, but that we are obligated to interact with each other as equals. They believed that “might shouldn’t make right”, and they developed an imaginative variety of conflicting theories to overcome natural hierarchy. None of these contradictory ideas prove that the “only the strong survive” natural world should not apply to us. Friedrich Nietzsche exposed those efforts for what they were. He demonstrated how philosophy exaggerates and promotes mere opinions as truth. It turns out, those thinkers were working backwards. They started with the conclusion, with a sense of equality, and then tried to justify it. This idea of equality, of universal human rights, seemed so obvious to them, one could say “self evident” to them, that it justified the philosophic gymnastics to discover a rational basis for respect, kindness and indigenous human value. Still, the mystery remains – where did this equality idea originate, given the surrounding hierarchical state of nature?
Recall the cycle of cultural ideas from an earlier podcast: first, an idea is introduced by a particular Religion or framework of meaning; some ideas catch fire and they migrate to the broader culture. This is a migration from the particular to the universal. And once an idea becomes universal, many particular Religions find unique ways to incorporate that same idea into their own traditions, dogmas and rituals. Hence the common humanist values shared across all Religions comprising Western Culture.
This is exactly how the idea than you and I, that all of us, are of equal value and deserve respect, was introduced to the world: the Bible recorded that all men and women are created in the image of God. That core idea was enlarged by another warning later in the Book of Genesis. There the Bible states that “whoever kills another person will himself be killed because God created humans in the image of God.” We must respect the image of God we find in the other.
Judaism revealed that our unique conscious soul is an immeasurable quality we each possess. This radical, counter-intuitive, counter-historical and counter-evolutionary idea – that we are all created in the equalizing image of God - would eventually catch fire and change much of the world. Judaism injected a radically egalitarian concept into an otherwise radically hierarchical state of nature. The Bible framed this idea as a dogmatic assertion attributed to God, a statement of creator-intent, that revolutionized the meaning of human life. It may seem self-evident today, but both the Bible and the Declaration of Independence ascribe this revolutionary big idea to God. From this one idea sprung the concepts of equality, liberty, humanism, human rights and ethics. Why? Because I am charged to nurture your image of God consciousness as if it were my own; to respect your unique quality; and to protect you and your Divine spark from harm. There is no idea in human history that caused and continues to cause revolutions in the interpersonal sphere like the image of God idea. No idea even comes close to catching fire like this equality-inspiring Tzelem Elokim. This was as true for a slave nation in ancient Egypt, as it was for an American Revolution, as it was for Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela. And it continues to be the essential principle behind the very idea of social justice in fighting all forms of hate based on superficial differences. It is our greatest weapon against de-humanization. But why was this idea so revolutionary? Why does is continue to resonate so strongly?
The secret to the idea that we are all created in the image of God, in the Tzelem Elokim, is that it provides us with both meaning and purpose. It is both descriptive and aspirational. It explains how we are unique and special, but it also challenges us. It tells us a story about our past and points a way forward into the future. As meaning seeking and creating beings, nothing could be more desired or fulfilling.
The Image of God describes our shared unique characteristic. We each possess a superpower of conscious self-awareness. As a result, the image of God demands that we resist the natural hierarchies and instead treat all persons with respect. This is the principle behind the sentence: do not kill because you are all created in God’s image. Our consciousness, our soul, is not a random evolutionary characteristic, like blinking eyelids. It is a spark of something higher, in religious terms a spark of something holy, that commands respect and mutual admiration. And it will be the basis for our God/human relationship (more on that later). When I talk about universal human rights – and human rights must be universal and egalitarian – I am tacitly accepting Judaism’s original formulation of Tzelem Elokim, the image of God. The deeper I thought about this idea, the more transformative it became in my life. Just try looking at each and every person you encounter as someone whose essence includes the image of God. It creates a bond, a baseline of respect, even when you have seemingly nothing else in common.
But this core value is more than just descriptive of who we are and why we must respect each other. It is also aspirational; it is the foundation of our purpose. It challenges me to fulfil my potential during my short time on this earth. We were all created in the image of God. Possessing this Divine spark of consciousness, I am not merely a biological animal roaming around; I am not damned by inescapable sin, nor floating by chance through a meaningless life in a meaningless universe. Our souls and our potential can be nurtured, developed, and encouraged to do good and to increase goodness in this world. This aspirational idea gave birth to the idea of Tikun Olam – it injected the ideas of hope and progress into human history. The image of God gives me something to aspire to in this world. It is the foundation of my role here on earth.
The famous Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva nailed it when he said that we believe “human beings are beloved by God because we were created in God’s image. But the greatest act of love occurred when this [fact] was revealed to us in the Bible… as it says, ‘we were created in the image of God.’" That’s a perfect summary of how the Bible changed the course of human history. It revealed certain big ideas – in this case, the foundation for respect and inalienable human rights. Many of those big ideas developed and evolved to be the core values of Western Culture. But none more so than this notion that because we each possess the image of God, we must overcome our “might makes right” animal instincts.
As Judaism’s second big idea, this image of God-equality created both the foundation for human rights as well as a task… a purpose, that caught fire in our hearts and minds. As meaning-seeking animals, we seek and need meaningful challenges. Living up to both the descriptive and aspirational aspects of the image of God resonated and continues to resonate deeply within us. So much so that even those who no longer believe in God at all refuse to live without the purpose and meaning introduced by Judaism’s second big idea – that we all possess the image of God within us.