In His Image

(2) בצלם אלוקים, a reference to an angel. Basically, whether we speak of “the image of G’d,” or of “an angel,” the common denominator is that we speak of disembodied spiritual beings. G’d is distinguished by the fact that none of the other disembodied intelligent beings (angels) amounts to anything at all, seeing none of them can understand their Creator’s essence. This is an axiom, seeing that G’d is the ultimate cause of their existence. He is the Creator, whereas they are merely creatures. This is why Moses added the word אלוקים, when mentioning צלם, to make sure that we get the point that if man is compared to something celestial, he is compared to a creature in the celestial regions, not to the Creator himself.

(1) And God created man in His image: In the mold that was made for him - since everything was created with a proclamation, but he was created manually, as it is written, (Psalms 139:5) "and you placed your palm upon me." He was made with an imprint like a coin that is made with an impression that is called coin (coin) in [Old French]. And so it states (Job 38:14), "The seal changes like clay."

(2) In the image of God, did He create him: It explains to you that this image which was prepared for him is the image of the facsimile of his Creator.

(3) Male and female, He created them: And later it states (Genesis 2:21), "And He took one of his ribs, etc." There is a midrash aggadah [that explains] that He created him with two faces at the first creation and afterwards divided him. And the simple explanation is [that] here it is telling you that both of them were created on the sixth day and it does not explain how their creation [happened], and it explains [it] to you in a different place.

(1) “in his image” – the image of man – that was made in the image of elohim - angels. Now don’t be surprised that the creation of angels was not made explicit, for Moshe wrote here neither angels, nor Gehenna, nor the Work of the Chariot, but rather those things we see in the world and are mentioned in the Ten Commandments, for that’s the reason for [recounting] all of the Work of the six days, as I explained above.

(2) “male and female He created them” – as it makes explicit later on: “and He took one of his sides” – general, followed by specific (klal ufrat). And thus did I find in the 32 Rules of Interpretation [for narrative passages] of Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Yosi the Galilean, who learned the rule of klal ufrat from this verse.