What Does It Mean to be Created in the Image of God?

The Torah describes human beings as being created “in the image of God.”¹ Since God is the Creator of heaven and earth, we, too, must be creators.

Clearly, we can’t walk into a dark room and say, “Let there be light,” and there’s light. We can’t create a tree or a table where there was nothing before. (Magicians create the illusion that they are creating... and they often say “abracadabra”—which means, in Aramaic, “I create as I speak.”)

So what does it mean that we are created in His image and are creators like Him?

Let’s look more closely at the phrase “in the image of God.” In Hebrew it’s בצלם אלוקים—b’tzelem Elohim.”

First of all, why is God’s name of Elohim used here, instead of another name for God? God has many names. (One of His names we don’t even pronounce: His most essential name, His name of simple Oneness, the four-letter Name of God—י-ה-ו-ה. This is God’s name that expresses His love, compassion, timelessness, infiniteness and perfection.)

Why does the Torah use God’s name of Elohim here?

Each name of God is based on how He “appears” to us in the world and how we relate to Him. For example, even though my name is Chava, my children call me Mom, my grandchildren call me Savta (Grandma), and the store clerk calls me Mrs. Bloom. The same is true for God: each of the different names reflect the different ways He appears to us through His deeds and the different kinds of relationships we have with Him.

The name Elohim refers to God as He appears as Creator, Teacher, Administrator, and Ruler. Elohim creates this world and runs it with Divine justice, tempered with His compassion. This name of God is plural (Elohim has the plural suffix of ים “im”) because He is the One God who holds all the energies and forces of the cosmos.² Elohim creates and runs the world through the laws of nature and the didactic consequences of cause and effect. These “natural” laws may disguise His Presence, but it’s always the great and powerful God who directs everything that happens.

So what does it mean to be created in the image of Elohim—the Creator and Ruler? We’re not like Him at all! He transcends physicality; we’re made of flesh and blood. He’s all powerful; we’re limited. He’s infinite; we’re bound by time and space. He’s perfect, we’re still growing.

A careful look at the word צלם tzelem “image” reveals the answer. The two-letter root of צלם tzelem is צל tzel, which in Hebrew means “shadow” or “shade.” We human beings are to God, the Infinite One of Endless Light, as our shadow is to ourselves... a darkened, lesser-dimensional representation of the real thing.

We are created to be creators as well.

We see that clearly through the creation of a child.

But there’s another creation that is perhaps our greatest work of creation – namely ourselves. We create ourselves and the world we live in. Just as God created heaven and earth, so too, do we.

This “we” I’m speaking about is the partnership that makes us up: an ethereal, divine soul that activates a coarse physical body, empowering it to think, speak, and act. It is this partnership that has the potential to shine out a reflection of Divinity into the world and create a new reality through this light.

Each of us holds a unique expression of Godliness. God pairs our soul with a specific body and brain holding a specific combination of qualities: intellect, emotions, talents, desires, strengths, and weaknesses. These are the palette of colors, the kinds of brushes, and the type of canvas with which we will paint ourselves and our world. These will influence the masterpiece that our soul/body combination will ultimately create. We each have a unique way to change the cosmos and a particular kind of light to radiate out into the darkness.

Each of us is an artist – an ohman—אומן in Hebrew, crafting our own lives. The root for אומן is אמן amen, related to truth. (“אמן Amen!” said after a blessing exclaims, “Yes! This is True!”) להתאמן l’hitomen means to diligently work at learning a skill or a lesson in order to really get it, to internalize it, to make it ours. We are craftsmen and artists who diligently work to fashion ourselves into that true image of God, to make our shadow brighter and clearer, to make ourselves true to the essence of the Godly beings that we are.

Our role is to become our own best work of art. And it’s the work of a lifetime.

To do it, we need to be true to our essential selves, to the tzelem Elokim, the image of God at the core of our being.

So the question is, who are we creating... as we live our lives? Are we true to the tzelem Elokim within us? Are we expressing the colors of our soul through the filters of our personality, our body, and all the challenges of our lives?

God is waiting for us to create our masterpiece, our song, our unique painting, our very selves. He’s brought us into the world at this particular time and place because His Creation needs us for its perfection.

Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook wrote that all the souls that were ever born into the world (and all those that will be born in years to come) were all created at the very beginning of time. They are “time-released” into the world, depending on when Creation needs their particular gifts.³

The perfection of Creation needs each one of us! Even though we may feel that we’re not so different from others, and we may tell ourselves, “What do I have to contribute?” nothing God creates is superfluous. Each one of us is unique and has a job to do here that no one else—in all of Creation—can ever do.

My soul—and yours—have not been needed until now. For almost 6,000 years, they’ve been waiting backstage, waiting for their moment, waiting for their time to finally walk on stage—to fulfill the unique role for which they’ve been created.  And finally, that time comes.  After millennia of waiting in the wings, each of us is finally pushed on stage. And the question is: do we forget our lines, or do we fulfill our destiny in Creation?

God believes we can do it!

Every day that He returns our soul to us, He is saying “I believe in you! I have faith in you!” We say this every morning when we wake up. “Modeh ani... I gratefully thank You, O living and eternal King, for You have returned my soul within me with compassion—great is Your faith [in me]!”

God Himself believes that I can do it! God Himself believes that from all the disparate components of our lives, we can create masterpieces of divine light.

1. Bereishit 1:27
2. Samson Raphael Hirsch. 2005. The Hirsch Chumash, Bereishit 1:1
3. Rabbi Yaacov Haber; October 20, 2017 “The Purpose of My Soul” citing Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook’s commentary to the Sidur