הוסיף בן עזאי ואמר גדול הימנו שנאמר כי בצלם אלהים עשה את האדם. פי' אע"פ שאינו מקפיד על כבוד עצמו יש לו להקפיד על כבוד חבירו:
Ben Azzai expressed it even more strongly than Rabbi Akiva: "For man was created in the image of God," meaning that even if a person is not particular about his own honor, he should be particular about the honor of his friend.
נראה שיסוד חומר כבוד הבריות וגדולתו הוא משום שהאדם עצמו גדול מאד ולכן כבודו חמור כל כך, אלא שאנו אין לנו השגה בגדלות האדם, ולכן אנו תמהים על כך.
Sichot Mussar 5732 no. 36
It seems that the foundation of the concept of human dignity is that all people are very significant and therefore, every person's honor is very important. However, since we don't have the proper perspective on the greatness of humankind, we wonder why this concept [is so important].
Look at yourself as though you are the poor man.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel "Religion and Race" speech, January 14th 1963
God is every man's pedigree. He is either the Father of all men or of no man. The image of God is either in every man or in no man. From the point of view of moral philosophy it is our duty to have regard for every man. Yet such regard is contingent upon the moral merit of the particular man. From the point of view of religious philosophy it is our duty to have regard and compassion for every man regardless of his moral merit. God's covenant is with all men, and we must never be oblivious of the equality of the divine dignity of all men. The image of God is in the criminal as well as in the saint. How can my regard for man be contingent upon his merit, if I know that in the eyes of God I myself may be without merit!
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Toldot (5770) - Kinship and Difference
Every child born of the genetic mix between two parents is unpredictable, like yet unlike those who have brought it into the world. That mix of kinship and difference is an essential feature of human relationships. It is the basis of a key belief of Judaism, that each individual is unique, non-substitutable, and irreplaceable. In a famous Mishnah the sages taught: "When a human being makes many coins in a single mint, they all come out the same. G-d makes every human being in the same image, His image, yet they all emerge different."
The glory of creation is that unity in heaven creates diversity on earth. G-d wants every human life to be unique. As Harvard philosopher Hilary Putnam put it: "Every child has the right to be a complete surprise to its parents" - which means the right to be no-one else's clone. What would become of love if we knew that if we lost our beloved we could create a replica? What would happen to our sense of self if we discovered that we were manufactured to order?
If there is a mystery at the heart of the human condition it is otherness: the otherness of man and woman, parent and child,. It is the space we make for otherness that makes love something other than narcissism and parenthood something greater than self-replication. It is this that gives every human child the right to be themselves, to know they are not reproductions of someone else, constructed according to a pre-planned genetic template. Whithout this, would childhood be bearable? Would love survive? Would a world of clones still be a human world? We are each in G-d's image but no one else's.