(כו) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקִ֔ים נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ וְיִרְדּוּ֩ בִדְגַ֨ת הַיָּ֜ם וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּבְכָל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וּבְכָל־הָרֶ֖מֶשׂ הָֽרֹמֵ֥שׂ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ (כז) וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹקִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹקִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃
(26) And God said: ‘Let us make humans in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ (27) And God created humans in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
תלמוד ירושלמי נדרים פרק ט: הל' ד
/ה"ד/
ואהבת לרעך כמוך ר' עקיבה או' זהו כלל גדול בתורה בן עזאי אומ' זה ספר תולדות אדם זה כלל גדול מזה .
Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 9:4
Rabbi Akiva taught: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19). This is the major principle of the Torah. Ben Azzai says “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him” (Genesis 5:1). This is an even greater principle, because it encompasses the other.
תוספתא מסכת סנהדרין (צוקרמאנדל) פרק ט הלכה ז
היה ר' מאיר אומ' מה תלמ' לומר כי קללת אלקים תלוי לשני אחים תאומים דומין זה לזה אחד מלך על כל העולם כולו ואחד יצא לליסטייא לאחר זמן נתפס זה שיצא לליסטיא והיו צולבין אותו על הצלוב והיה כל עובר ושב או' דומה שהמלך צלוב לכך נאמר כי קללת אלקים תלוי.
Tosefta Sanhedrin 9:7
Rabbi Meir said: What does it mean that “a hanging corpse is an affront to God”?
It is like two brothers who were twins and
looked alike, one was the king of the whole
world and one became a thief. After some time, the thief was caught, and they were about to crucify him. Every passerby said: It seems that the king is being hanged!
(3) בצלמנו IN OUR IMAGE — in our type.
(א) שהאדם נברא בצלם אלקים זה הוא יסוד התורה. עיקר הצלם הוא החופש הגמור שאנו מוצאים באדם שעל כן הוא בעל בחירה. ולולא הבחירה לא היה מקום לתורה, כדברי הרמב״ם בה׳ תשובה. אם כן הבחירה היא יסוד התורה במעשה. והידיעה שהאדם הוא עשוי בצלם אלקים, אם כן הרי זה בא ללמד ששלימות החופש הגמור מוכרחה להמצא בעצם השלם האמיתי יתברך שמו, הוא היסוד העיוני של כל התורה כולה שכל המעשים נסמכים עליו.
(1) The foundation of the Torah is that man was created “in the image of God”. The essential meaning of “the image" is the complete freedom we find in man, [which means] that man must have free will. If there was no free will, there would be no context for the Torah, as Maimonides writes in The Laws of Repentance. If that's so, free will is the basis of the Torah, practically speaking. The knowledge that man is made “in the image of God” comes to teach that the perfection of total free will must exist [as well] in the essence of true perfection, may His name be blessed. This is the intellectual foundation of the entire Torah that all deed relies upon.
What does Tzelem / Image really mean?
The Hebrew term for "image" (tzelem) has a cognate word in Old Akkadian and Old Babylonian that throws significant light upon the original nuance of the term used in Genesis. The cognate word (tzalmu) can mean a statue, a bodily shape, a figurine, or a relief drawing. The term sometimes refers to a statue or an image of the king, which is placed in a captured city or elsewhere in the kingdom as an extension of the king's presence and the king's law. In other words, it as as if the king were present wheever the king's tzalmu is placed. The king rules wherever his tzalmu stands.
Seen in this light, humanity is the tzalmu of God. Wherever humans are, the presence of God is reflected. This cannot be said of any other creature. Indeed, the command to multiply and spread over the earth is none other than a desire to spread the presence of God and to actualize God's power throughout creation, rather than a desire for mere numerical increase. It is as if God could not function in the world without humanity…this is certainly in accord with the Rabbinic idea of human beings as 'partners of God in the work of Creation…"
— "Created in the Image of God: Humanity and Divinity in an Age of Environmentalism" by Rabbi Lawrence Troster. Found in Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader.
Hassidic Story:
Rabbi Nahman Kossover, would look out at his community as he would lead them in prayer, and he would see the letters of God's name reflected back at him. But then times changed and the rabbi was forced to become a merchant. In the marketplace, amid the rapid pace of buying and selling, he found it harder always to concentrate on the name of God. So he hired an assistant who came with him wherever he went. That person's function was to remind him of God's name. Whenever he looked at the face of his assistant, Rabbi Nahman would remember the name of God.
God says to each and every person: ‘ “Let us create a human being” – you and I together’
-Rebbe Avraham Mordechai of Ger, 1866-1948
Had the author of Genesis anything particular in his mind when he wrote? It is observable that in the passage leading up to the statement about man, he has given no detailed information about God. Looking at him, he sees in him something essentially divine, but when we turn back to see what he says about the original upon which the ‘image’ of God was modelled, we find only the single assertion, ‘God created’. The characteristic common to God and man is apparently the desire and the ability to make things.
-Dorothy Sayers, 1893-1957