Parshas Bereishis 5787 "Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness" - the special virtue of man

00:00 The Frierdiker Rebbe recounts in a written account a story passed down from Rebbe to Rebbe. Reb Chaim Avraham, the Alter Rebbe’s son, told it after hearing it from his father, the Alter Rebbe, who had heard it in Mezritch from the Baal Shem Tov’s disciples. In his younger years, when the Baal Shem Tov was still a hidden tzaddik, he would travel among the towns and villages, wherever Jews lived: simple Jews, poor Jews, villagers, people who worked in mills and markets, and the like. The Baal Shem Tov would go from place to place and come to the market, where Jews, too, gathered to buy and sell. He would gather the people around him—men, women, and children—and tell them stories, speak to them, and strengthen them in faith, in serving Hashem, in Ahavas Yisroel, and in love of Hashem. One day, the Baal Shem Tov was in a village and gathered the people there. He spoke to them about Ahavas Yisroel, saying that to understand and feel the true love a Jew ought to have, one must know how Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves a Jew. We learn this from

01:35 Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s love, from the way He loves a Jew. The Baal Shem Tov then told them what the Gemara says in Sanhedrin: When Hakadosh Boruch Hu was about to create Adam Harishon, He brought a group of angels before Him and said, “Let us make man”—He wished to create a human being. The angels asked, “What is this human being You wish to create?” Hakadosh Boruch Hu told them what a human being is: flesh and blood, with a yetzer hara, desires and cravings, who must toil, labor, and pursue a livelihood, and whose every mitzvah and good deed would come amid such difficulties. The angels protested, “What is man that You should remember him, and the son of man that You should be mindful of him?” Why do You need man? Why create such a being? Why make so much of him? What did Hakadosh Boruch Hu do? “He extended His little finger among them and burned them.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not wish to hear the angels’ words; on the contrary, He burned them. The same happened with another group, and then another, as the Gemara relates. The Baal Shem Tov told them the Gemara’s account and said to them, [unclear], how precious to Hakadosh Boruch Hu are a simple Jew’s good deed, a mitzvah, and the Torah study and prayer of every simple Jew. In that village, where the Baal Shem Tov gave this teaching,

03:09 as they stood in the market, there lived a great Torah scholar named Reb Yaakov. He was fluent in Shas, a brilliant and accomplished scholar, and devoted himself to simple people: he would study with them and explain a passage of Gemara, a passage of Rashi, or a passage of Tosafos. When he was on his own, he would sit and study in great depth. Once, Reb Yaakov was sitting and studying with some Jews—as they told the Baal Shem Tov about the scholar who lived in their village. What was he studying with them? He was teaching a passage of Gemara containing a long, complex Tosafos. In other words, the Gemara dealt with a difficult subject; that is how they would describe a substantial Tosafos that delves deeply into the subject over many lines. He was in the middle of teaching a very profound Tosafos when suddenly a child ran in from his game outside: Reb Yaakov’s young son. He ran to his father to tell him a little clever thought he had had while playing that simple game. The great Reb Yaakov, who was sitting with Jews

04:34 and studying a profound Tosafos, with all the delight and richness of that learning, stopped everything he was doing and gave his attention to his young son and his little clever thoughts. He played with him, laughed with him, and delighted in him. Afterward, he went back to his learning. The Baal Shem Tov told the simple people standing in the market: This is the delight Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes in man. After all, the angels had argued, “Hashem, our Master, how mighty is Your name throughout the earth; set Your glory upon the heavens.” They argued that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is so great—“Great is Hashem, and His greatness is beyond fathoming”—and He has so many ministering angels, seraphim and ofanim, and all these great worlds. Yet Hakadosh Boruch Hu sets it all aside. Meanwhile, simple Jews, whose souls are clothed in physical bodies, with a yetzer hara, and [unclear] in the world, with the demands of earning a living—He [unclear]. And why? Because I sent him; because I gave him this task. Yet he leaves everything and runs to the shul to daven Minchah, fulfill a mitzvah, and help another Jew. And for Hakadosh Boruch Hu—He leaves

05:59 all the delights [unclear] and devotes Himself to this, down here in this world. This is the greatest delight. This is “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” as Hakadosh Boruch Hu said. The Frierdiker Rebbe speaks at length about this teaching, and the great disciples of the Baal Shem Tov and of the Maggid of Mezritch lived with it. [unclear] Parshas Bereishis begins. In Parshas Bereishis we find the verse, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” There it explains that Hakadosh Boruch Hu decided to create man. As our Sages say, the ministering angels protested [unclear], and nonetheless Hakadosh Boruch Hu said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”—He placed “our image and our likeness” within man. This idea, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created man “in our image, after our likeness,” is also alluded to in his name, adam. There are two interpretations of the name adam. On the one hand, adam—as the verse says, why was he called adam? Because he came from the adamah, the earth. Yes. As the Midrash says, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu created [unclear] and Adam Harishon, He told him to give each one its name. And [unclear] “adam”—he came from the adamah. Yes, that is the plain meaning of adam. But on the other hand, as the holy Shelah also cites,

07:44 adam also means “I will resemble the One Above.” This means that man bears within himself the image and likeness—“in our image, after our likeness”—of the Supernal Man above. The Supernal Man is the one upon the throne, the one above; this refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is called adam, and the human being below is also called adam because he “resembles the One Above,” the Supernal Man. And as the Alter Rebbe [unclear] chapter 3, [unclear] the ten faculties of the soul. The inner soul—a Jew has a soul, “an actual part of G-d Above,” and that inner soul has ten faculties. This [unclear]. The ten faculties of the soul are derived from the ten sefiros Above, and this is, in essence, the meaning of “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” This is explained in the Kabbalistic texts, in the Zohar. [unclear] Moshe Rabbeinu. [unclear] Heaven forbid, several matters of idolatry and heresy. [unclear] This is not relevant, and [unclear]. [unclear] It is something open. But [unclear] the Rebbe’s wording. He offers several explanations, and Rashi, z”l, also gives other explanations. But one of the foundations of Chassidus is precisely this teaching: the reference is to the ten sefiros—“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”—and the human being below also has ten faculties of the soul.

09:27 In the pattern of what is Above, these are the sefiros Above, and this is the difference between man and the One Above. These are two extremes within the human being. On the one hand, man comes from the earth: a physical, material body, lowly—the lowest of all—dust of the earth. On the other hand, man “resembles the One Above.” As the Midrash says: “If he is worthy, they tell him: You preceded the ministering angels.” Adam Harishon was actually created last, after all the other creatures. The Midrash gives two reasons for this, at opposite extremes. On the one hand, it was so that he would arrive at a meal already prepared for him: man is the choicest of creation, the perfection and purpose of creation. The Rebbe also emphasizes there that everything was prepared for man’s arrival. That reflects man’s virtues. On the other hand, as the Midrash says—and Rashi cites this too—when man needs to hear it, they say, “The mosquito preceded you.” If he sins, they tell him, “The mosquito preceded you.” You came after the mosquito; even mosquitoes were created before you. What is the significance of saying specifically, “The mosquito preceded you”? Why a mosquito? Even the mosquito, a lowly creature that has no power to give—it has only the power to receive, crying “Give, give”—preceded you. That is the very depth of kelipah. If a person sins, he is, Heaven forbid, worse even than a mosquito, as stated in Tanya, chapter 24.

11:27 So when it says, “Let us make man,” we see two extremes in a person. On the one hand, he is taken from the earth; on the other, he can “resemble the One Above.” He can reach the highest levels. “You formed me back and front”: last in the order of Creation and first in the order of Creation. The lowest and the highest. And it is up to him to choose: he can be lower than all other creatures—“the mosquito preceded you,” may Hashem spare us—or he can be the choicest of all creatures and reach “in Our image, after Our likeness,” the highest levels of G-dliness. When it says, “Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness,” we see both extremes. The Alter Rebbe adds another point. He asks: What was different about the creation of man? When we look in Chumash and read how all the other creatures were created, we see a difference between the creation of man and that of every other creature. One difference the Alter Rebbe explains is that, in all other creatures, the body and soul were created together. As we can plainly see, whether in the inanimate, in plants, or even in animals—“Let the earth bring forth living creatures”—the body and soul were created together, each with the other. In other words, the body is on a level suited to the soul, and the soul is on a level suited to the body; they correspond to each other. Although the body is matter and the soul is form, one physical and the other spiritual, they were nevertheless created together. There was not even a minute, not even a second, when there was matter without form or form without matter—the body

13:15 and the soul, the soul and the body, were created together. But when we come to man, Chumash describes a different order: first, Hakadosh Boruch Hu formed “dust from the earth.” He took a body from the earth, from the dust; and for this body He took physical, material dust from the lowest level in the entire world. That is what the Gemara and the Midrashim tell us. Only afterward did He “breathe into his nostrils the breath of life.” In other words, the body and soul were created as two separate things and only then joined together. And they were not merely separate, but at opposite extremes. The body is the most material of things, dust from the earth, the lowest of the low; while the soul—“He breathed”—as the Alter Rebbe quotes the Zohar in Tanya, “He who breathes, breathes from within himself.” “He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” is said of the soul. And here we are speaking of the source of Jewish souls, as the Arizal explains: it comes from the highest levels above. This is precisely how man was created. The Alter Rebbe explains that it is not only because of what we said earlier—that man has two sides and can choose to be mere earth or to “resemble the One Above.” The point is deeper still: the purpose of man’s creation is to connect the lowest depths with the loftiest heights. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created man so that, on the side of his body, he comes from the lowest forms of material existence, from “dust from

14:50 the earth,” while on the side of his soul, he comes from the highest levels. That is because man’s role and purpose are to connect and unite. He connects and unites the upper and lower realms, the highest and the lowest. The purpose of man’s creation is for him to take the dust of the earth, the physical, the material, and, as he works on himself and with his body, to refine [unclear] and illuminate his body. He wages war with the yetzer hara, breaks through the materiality of his body and his animal soul, and makes his body a vessel for G-dliness. [unclear] Man is the one who can connect the lowest depths with the loftiest heights, and he reaches the highest levels. This, after all, is the purpose of man’s creation, and this is “Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” But Chassidus explains that, regarding “in Our image, after Our likeness,” the Gemara goes on to say something interesting. When the angels argued, “What is man that You should remember him, and the son of man that You should be mindful of him?”—why create man?—they did not understand the purpose of man’s creation. They did not understand the whole idea. And what does it say there? “Hakadosh Boruch Hu extended His little finger among them and burned them.” He extended His little finger among them and burned them. The question is: What does that mean? On the face of it, Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not answer their question.

16:37 Why? You bring out a finger, burn them, punish them. Well, then the question remains: Why did they not agree with Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s plan? But why not explain it to them? Why not answer exactly what is being expressed here? Why did You want to create man? What is so great about “Let us make man”? Explain it to them. No—instead of explaining, “Hakadosh Boruch Hu extended His little finger among them and burned them.” [unclear] The Gemara says that one group of angels came after another, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu burned them. Where is the explanation? The Rebbe explains in a rich sicha that this was not simply a punishment; it was an explanation. It was an answer to the angels’ objections. The angels stood there, unable to understand man’s greatness. They could not understand what Hakadosh Boruch Hu saw in man, what was so special about him. “What is man that You should remember him?” Man is physical and material; he has a yetzer hara and hot, surging blood. As the Frierdiker Rebbe relates in a sicha, citing Reb [unclear] in the name of the Rashbatz—the great chossid Reb Shmuel Betzalel, who was a chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Maharash, and the Rebbe Rashab, and with whom the Frierdiker Rebbe [unclear] and studied. He said: What is a Jew? “A veritable part of G-d Above,” or, in the words of the Sages, G-dliness clothed in a sack of flesh and bones with surging blood. And “What is man that You should remember him?”—that

18:12 is the angels’ argument. Hakadosh Boruch Hu answered them: Come, I will show you what happens. You want to understand man’s greatness? Let us take “His little finger.” What does “His little finger” mean? There are ten fingers, corresponding to the ten sefiros. “His little finger” alludes to the sefirah of Malchus, the lowest of all the sefiros. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: I will give you a little more revelation from “His little finger,” from Malchus, the lowest sefirah. And from that sefirah I will give you no more than that: “He extended His little finger.” Let us see whether you have the vessels, whether you can receive the revelation. What happened? “And He burned them”—their very existence was nullified. They could not contain that small illumination of revealed G-dliness, which was more than they could, so to speak, absorb. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to the angels in reply: That is the difference. You angels, for all your lofty and wondrous bodies, are utterly nullified when given something beyond what you can receive. You are completely burned; you cannot absorb it. Jewish souls, by contrast, are vessels for the highest revelations. Jewish souls have within them the capacity and the vessels to receive them. Jewish souls are the true [unclear], the true vessels: they can receive and absorb the highest and deepest revelations of the Essence and Being, without losing their existence or being burned. They remain as they are, because at their source, Jewish souls are higher even than the angels. And here [unclear] tells us that when Shabbos Bereishis comes, as the Frierdiker Rebbe

19:57 famously said, “The way a Jew establishes himself on Shabbos Bereishis is the way the entire year goes.” How great a Jew is, and how great is the avodah of a Jew and of Jewish souls. “Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness”—the preciousness of a Jew. A Jew has this unique quality: although he is in a physical body, with the body’s materiality and a yetzer hara, when he sets himself to the task, then with one movement, one breath, one thing, one action that he performs with his body and animal soul, he has an effect in this world. He has the power to reach the loftiest revelations. And this is “Let us make man”: adam—“I will resemble the One Above.” Adam has the same numerical value as me’od, “very,” and, as Chassidus explains, this is connected to the name Mah, to the Divine Name in its Mah form. Man has the power and ability to make the world brighter. This is why the Mishnah says, “Why was man created alone?”—so that each person would know, “The world was created for my sake.” This is the power man has: he can illuminate the world and bring G-dliness into it. And through this man we will merit, speedily in our days—as Chassidus explains—that adam will become me’od. Yes, that adam will become the concept of me’od. “Behold, My servant will prosper; he will be exalted and raised and become very lofty”—and “very,” me’od, is

21:23 adam. It is brought [unclear] that Adam is an acronym for Adam, David, Moshiach. These are the figures who encompass all of Creation. And me’od is an acronym for Moshiach, Adam, David. This is the order of adam: first came Adam Harishon, after him came David, and after him will come King Moshiach, who will rectify everything. But in the future, Moshiach will be “exalted and raised and become very lofty”—me’od. Through our avodah in a manner of me’od, “with all your might,” we will merit the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, immediately, right now.