The view of mankind in Judaism

According to Judaism, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. It was on the sixth day that God created the first human being. From dust. And perhaps most importantly: God created the human in his image. What does this mean?

That humans look like God? Some do believe this. Others say that no, this can’t be true, since God has no body. Instead they believe that it must be humans’ inner traits that resemble those of God. But if God doesn’t have a body… Why are words like ‘he’ and ‘him’ so often used about God?

These words refer to males - they are masculine words. Why are words like ‘she’ or ‘her’ - feminine words - not used? Is God more male than female? The most common view about God within Judaism is that God has no gender. But in Hebrew all words are either masculine or feminine - there are no neutral words - so many Jewish scholars believe that words for God are masculine mostly for practical reasons.

Most scholars also believe that since humans were created in the image of God, the first human was created as both male and female, and then later divided into a man and a woman - Adam and Eve. Does God have a name then? Well, it says in the Tanakh that God tells Moses that God’s name is Yahweh. Yahweh approximately means “I am”. But according to Jewish tradition God’s name is not to be spoken.

Instead most believing Jews use two other words. The word meaning god: Elohim, and the word meaning lord: Adonai. God revealed his name to Moses, that seems huge! How did it happen that God and Moses had such personal conversations? According to the stories in the Tanakh, Moses, Abraham, and Noah all have a special relationship with God.

They each make an agreement - a covenant - with God. Noah’s covenant is between the whole of humanity and God. If Noah does what God says, God promises to save mankind and animals from death. The covenants of Abraham and Moses however, do not apply to all humanity and God, but only to the Jews and God, which makes the Jews God’s chosen people. Does this mean that the Jews look upon themselves as extra righteous?

No, that kind of idea doesn’t exist. According to Judaism it is hard for any human not to break any laws. But when you do something wrong, if you ask God for forgiveness, you will be forgiven regardless of whether you are a Jew or belong to some other religion. Because God is god over all people. According to Judaism humans are neither good nor bad but have two driving forces.

One better - yetzer ha-tov and one worse - yetzer ha-ra. Yetzer ha-tov works as an inner voice that reminds you of the correct thing to do, and stops you when you are about to do something forbidden. Yetzer ha-ra makes sure that you fulfill your own needs - without considering if that would hurt someone else. Rather selfish in other words but this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. If you are hungry, you need to take care of your needs and get something to eat - there’s nothing wrong with that.

But if you go as far as stealing the food - that would be wrong. While yetzer ha-ra makes sure you eat - Yetzer ha-tov makes sure you don’t steal the food. Yetzer ha-tov and yetzer ha-ra balance each other, so that you lead a good life where you consider both yourself and others. And showing consideration and taking care of each other: that is one of the most important ideas within Judaism.