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    The Divine image

    Central to the Rosh HaShanah services are the twin concepts of God and Man.

    Their partnership and dialogue is the theme of millennia of history.

    Genesis begins with God making the world and crowning the Creation by making Man.

    Where did God get the idea of Man? He looked at Himself and made Man in His image (Gen. 1:27).

    The simplistic conclusion is that Man is a photograph of God. And that whatever man looks like, that suggests the Creator’s image.

    It is an impossible interpretation since by definition God is totally non-physical and has no material shape or form. The word image cannot possibly be taken literally. Whatever it denotes, it has no connotation whatsoever of physical shape or bodily appearance.

    The image that the Bible speaks of in relation to God has four aspects – intellectual, articulate, spiritual, and moral.

    Man was made with these four characteristics – or rather, with the capacity to emulate them. God is the acme of perfection in each case.

    Man cannot possibly be or become God but he is capable of gradually-growing godliness, making him (Psalm 8), “just beneath the angels”.

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