(כז) וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃
(27) And God created adam in God's own image, in the image of God did God create adam; male and female created God them.
1. What does בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים, "in the image of God," mean?
2. Why does the Torah tell us that God created the first human "in the image of God"?
3. For the Black Lives Matter movement, why start here?
לפיכך נברא אדם יחידי, ללמדך, שכל המאבד נפש אחת מישראל, מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו אבד עולם מלא. . . . ומפני שלום הבריות, שלא יאמר אדם לחברו, אבא גדול מאביך.
"It was for this reason that human was first created as one adam, to teach you that anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world." . . . And also, to promote peace among the creations, that no person would say to a friend, "My ancestors are greater than yours."
1. How is killing one person like destroying an entire world?
2. Could the fact that all humans share the same creator create peace?
3. How does this text obligate us in the Black Lives Matter movement?
Excerpt from "Feeling That Black Lives Don't Matter"
Rachel Kahn-Troster, Forward, 11/27/14
[O]nce again, black and brown youth in the United States have been shown by the system of justice that is supposed to serve all of us that their lives do not matter. In America today, it should not be this way. All lives matter. That’s the first message the Torah gives us about human beings, when it tells us that every human being is created b’tzelem elohim, in the image of God. This should not be an abstract concept: We are all sacred; each of us is someone’s child. . . .
[I]f as Jews we really believe that all lives matter, we are obligated to speak out against a system of violence in which someone’s child is shot by a police officer every 28 hours. And as a white parent, the reality [is that it will be] someone else’s child. And that is a horrible truth in America today. Every parent has a right to a world in which his or her child can grow up in safety, and every parent certainly has a right not to fear that the police will be the ones who violate that safety. . . .
Anger on the part of the community is justified. We would be angry, too, if our youth could be shot by police with no consequences at all. As Jews, we have a duty to engage with the systemic concerns about police violence and accountability that the Ferguson protesters have been raising since Brown was killed this past summer. We must stand in solidarity with those echoing the prophetic call of Malachi: Have we not all one parent? Has not one God created us?
1. How does Kahn-Troster understand b'tzelem elohim?
2. Why does she think that Jews should support the Black Lives Matter movement?