There is so much going on in the text of Bereshit. The world is created, right down to the very last detail of creeping things on the earth and a day of rest. Adam and Eve, the first human beings named in the Torah, succumb to temptation and are thrown out of the ideal world God created for them. Their sons, Cain and Abel, indulge in a rivalry that ends up with Abel dead and Cain exiled. Adam and Eve and Cain all have more children and these children and their children spread across the face of the earth until their descendants start to anger God. The last descendants of Adam and Eve mentioned in Bereshit are Noah and his sons, though the story of their adventures isn't covered until the following parshah.
Delving into this richness of narrative to pull out one or two specific things to talk about is difficult. Perhaps that is why we read and re-read the Torah every year. After much thought, I realized that what I want to write about this year is the concept of b'tzelem Elohim, that we are created in the image of God.
Obviously, Michaelangelo and many other artists have fostered the idea that the image of God means that we physically resemble God the Creator. Or, probably more accurately, God the Creator resembles human beings.
There's a joke that goes
Q: "How do we know God is a baseball fan?"
A: "Because the Bible starts 'In the Big Inning'."
I love baseball, therefore God must love baseball, too. I have two legs and two arms and one head, therefore God must also have two legs and two arms and one head. Makes sense, doesn't it?
But I cherish the idea of an Unknowable God, One Who cannot be defined by -- or restricted to -- human form. And if this Unknowable God created me and you b'tzelem Elohim, what does that mean?
Human beings, alone among God's Creation, were created b'tzelem Elohim. So I look at what differentiates human beings from the rest of Creation and I keep coming back to the same thing -- the urge to create. I can already hear some objections out there -- that birds and other animals build nests and structures. I agree that many animals build. I disagree that these animals are creating something -- that is, that they are making something which has never been seen before. One bird's nest, one beaver's dam, is much like the next.
Human beings, on the other hand, are always creating. Some of our creations are beautiful, such as great art or poetry. Some of our creations are useful, such as buildings and bridges. Some of our creations are both beautiful and utilitarian, such as the Taj Mahal or quilts. And some of our creations are detrimental and even cruel, such as atomic bombs and leg-hold traps.
What all of these things have in common, regardless of their beauty or utility or destructive potential is that human beings conceived of them and then caused them to come into existence. I believe that this drive to create something new is what separates humans from the rest of God's Creation, as well as what makes us b'tzelem Elohim, made in God's image.
