Ki Seitzei 5780 – In His Image

Ki Seitzei 5780 – In His Image (edited)

And if a man should commit a sin whose judgement is death, he shall be put to death, and afterward you should hang him on a post (Ki Seitzei 21:22). The Torah tells us that certain criminals are punished by a form of death penalty called skilah, stoning. And it says (Sanhedrin 45b) that kol haniskalin nitlin — all those who get skilah must be hanged.

There’s no such thing as death by hanging according to the Torah, but those who are put to death by stoning are subsequently hung up on a post. That’s because unlike the demoralized society of today where misplaced compassion rules the street, and therefore criminals rule the street, Hashem’s Torah raises on high the principle of punishing criminals. And therefore, וְתָלִיתָ אֹתוֹ עַל עֵץ – we raise aloft the ideal of retribution by hanging the body of the condemned man on a post for everyone to see. וְכָל יִשְׂרָאֵל יִשְׁמְעוּ וְיִרָאוּ – And all of Yisroel should hear and they should be afraid (ibid.). The sinner, even in death, is publicly scorned in order to demonstrate the judgement taken against anyone who might brazenly act against the will of Hashem.

And yet, in the following possuk, we find something very different. לֹא תָלִין נִבְלָתוֹ עַל הָעֵץ — Do not leave his body hanging there overnight (ibid.). A person hanging in public?! Oh no! “Don’t leave him hanging for too long,” says the possuk. And because of that command, the halacha is that we fulfill the mitzvah “and you should hang him on a piece of wood,” and then we take him down right away to fulfill the words “do not leave him hanging” (Sanhedrin 46b).

Now, such a turnabout, such a sudden change in direction, has to be understood. And so, the possuk gives us the reason: כִּי קִלְלַת אֱלֹקִים תָּלוּי – It’s a disgrace for Elokim when a man remains hanging. To leave a man hanging from a tree is a disgrace for Hashem.

Now, we’re talking here about a man who deserves the death sentence – if a Jewish beis din sentenced somebody to death it means that it was beyond any shadow of a doubt that he was guilty. He certainly deserved it. And therefore, why don’t we leave him hanging there? That’s the purpose of this mitzvah after all – we want everyone to see the results of rebelling against the Torah! Isn’t it true that hanging the sinner for everyone to see reinforces the moral fiber of society?

Yes; of course it does! Absolutely! And yet, Hakodosh Boruch Hu says, “Take him down anyhow. Take him down right away because it’s disgracing Me when a man remains hanging.” It’s a קִלְלַת אֱלֹקִים - it’s making light of Hashem. Klalah means to make light of, like the word kal; it means that Hakodosh Boruch Hu Himself is dishonored when this man is disgraced.

Why is that so? How is the hanging man a disgrace for Hashem? Because he is made in the image of Hashem, as it says (Bereishis 9:6) ‘In the image of G-d He made man.’ (Rashi; Ki Setzei ibid.) When that dead man is hanging there on the gallows, it’s the image of Hashem that is hanging.

Our sages (Sanhedrin 46b) illustrate it like this: “It once happened that twin brothers – identical twins – lived in the same city. Many years passed and one of them eventually became king. He was a wise person, well-liked too, and he made his way up among the aristocracy of the city until finally he was appointed king. Meanwhile, his twin brother wasn’t as successful – he chose a different profession; he became a ganav, a bandit who ambushed travelers on the backroads outside of the city.

Finally this bandit was caught and condemned to death. That’s how it was among the gentiles in the good old days – a highway bandit was executed. If the more liberal people were in charge he would get away with his hand being cut off; otherwise, he was crucified – that’s the way the Romans liked to do it in the ancient days. And they would leave him hanging there as a warning to others: “No bandits allowed here!” And it worked. A would be ganav thought once and twice and three times before choosing such a profession.

So this bandit, the king’s identical twin, is hanging on the gallows in the city square and now there’s murmuring among the city residents. And it rises to a crescendo: ‘What’s going on here?! The King is hanging! Our King is hanging from the gallows!’ And so, tzivah hamelech v’horiduhu – the King gives an order: ‘Take him down immediately.’ It’s a bizayon for the king because they have the same face. The King says, “Take him down because when people look at it they’ll say the king is hanging and that’s a disgrace for me.”

And that’s why, says the Gemara, we are commanded to take down the hanging man. It’s because בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹקִים עָשָׂה אֶת הָאָדָם - man was made in the image of his Creator and it’s a degradation for Hakodosh Boruch Hu that a portrait of Himself should be hanging in disgrace. Hashem says “Take him down because he looks like Me.”

What this tells us is that the words describing the creation of Man in the beginning of the Torah – “Adam is created in the image of Hashem” – are not just poetry. That proclamation that Hakodosh Boruch Hu made at the very outset of Creation is very real – real enough that we take down the sinner from the gallows because he is carrying upon himself the tzelem - the portrait of his Creator. And it’s so important that even when we hang a criminal to teach society the results of rebelling against Hashem, we can’t leave him there. Whatever benefit might be gained by keeping this executed sinner hanging, this lesson of tzelem Elokim on the face of every man is even more important.

It’s the most important! The yesod ha’yesodos (foundation of foundations) of Torah, one of the very first things mentioned in the Torah, is to know that a man is tzelem Elokim (created in the image of Hashem). If it’s mentioned at the beginning of Creation then it underlies everything else in the Torah and therefore it has to be studied. And if we just read these words superficially and then we go on from there to the rest of the Torah then although we might build a Torah edifice, we have to know that we are neglecting the foundation of the edifice. One of the foundations of the Torah is understanding that when you look at a face you’re looking at an image of Hashem.

Now, these are the most startling words you could hear and to people who never heard this it seems extreme. The Torah which teaches that Hakodosh Boruch Hu is far superior to any physical attributes should insist on us believing that בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹקִים עָשָׂה אֶת הָאָדָם, that man’s face is a reflection of the divine?! It sounds ridiculous to the untrained ear! And therefore when they hear this they attempt to explain it away by abstractions (non-literal explanations).

And it certainly does mean more than the plain literal meaning. “The image of Hashem” in the face of man?? Certainly it’s only a figure of speech. Nobody can know what it means; it’s impossible to fathom such a thing. And it’s against our emunah (belief system). Anybody who thinks that Hakodosh Boruch Hu actually has eyes is a min (heretic) according to the Rambam; he loses his portion in the World to Come because he’s not believing in Hashem – it’s the wrong Hashem. Of course, Hashem doesn’t have nostrils! He doesn’t have ears and lips and cheeks! Absolutely not! And yet, “Never mind that,” says Hakodosh Boruch Hu. “I’m telling you that you were made in My image, and although it’s merely a figure of speech, the simple meaning also has a place.”

Part II. Greatness of the Soul

The gemara (Shabbos 50b) says, רוֹחֵץ אָדָם פָּנָיו לִכְבוֹד קוֹנוֹ – A man should wash his face in honor of his Creator, and Rashi there explains what that means: "When Hashem told us בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹקִים עָשָׂה אֶת הָאָדָם, that He created man in His image, He wanted us to remember that always; and so it’s the duty of those who possess the image of Hashem to maintain the beauty of the image by washing it.

It’s like the king who gives a beautifully carved sculpture of himself as a gift to one of his subjects. Now, let’s say two weeks later the king comes to visit this man in his home and he sees that there’s dust on the statue; the king sees cobwebs hanging from the forehead of the bust. So he sees that his friend doesn’t think much of him. But if the friend washes the king’s statue every day and keeps it nice and clean, the king knows that his subject appreciates the gift; it shows that he is aware of its value.

And that’s why we’re obligated to wash our faces every day. Not because we want people to look at us, to admire us; we wash our faces because it’s the tzelem Elokim (image of Hashem) we’re washing. Every morning you wash your face because of the infinite grandeur of Hakodosh Boruch Hu that is being projected onto your face.

A pity that today the world is taught to look at a person and to see just a heap of chemicals. That’s what they’ll tell you in the universities — all you are is a certain amount of nitrogen and calcium mixed with carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and some other elements. If you would take all these elements and separate them and try to sell them to a drugstore man, he might give you five cents or ten cents for it. Is that what a person is?

No! There’s a mysterious beauty in the human face; it’s the most interesting object in the universe. There’s nothing as appealing, nothing as noble and interesting as a human face. In the entire universe, there’s nothing that compares to it. If you’d travel, let’s say, to the far off countries; if you’ll traverse the vast wilderness and climb the highest mountains, you’ll never see anything in the universe as interesting as a human face. The nobility of the human countenance is unequaled.

I see the grandeur in your face. I don’t see just a face; I see your forehead, your beautiful nose and your eyes. Your face is engaging; it’s entrancing and spellbinding! I see those lips, the beautiful lips that can speak words! I see expressive eyes looking at me. You look at a person’s eyes and they express intelligence; they express a depth of thoughtful nobility and emotions, a depth that seems to be bottomless. Even the expression in your cheeks. The way the cheeks move; the expression of emotions, the smile or sadness – there’s nothing so noble in the world. Tzelem Elokim! You’re an image of Hashem!

Now, we have to stop here for a moment and ask ourselves: Why is the human face entitled to such a grandeur and beautiful nobility that it should be considered a tzelem Elokim, a reflection of Hashem Himself? What is it that makes the face of man so noble and entrancing?

And the answer is that it’s the neshama, the soul, that is projecting from the face of Man. And what is the source of the soul? What is the secret of the soul? It’s a chelek Eloka mimaal. It’s something of Hashem! וַיִּפַּח בְּאַפָּיו נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים – Hakodosh Boruch Hu blew into man’s nostrils the breath of life. These words contain a fundamental teaching of immense importance.

The Breath of Life

Nishmas chayim, the breath of life, is not mentioned in connection with any of the other living creatures. It says that Hashem formed the other creatures. He didn’t breathe anything into them and they live anyhow. So we also can live without the breath of Hashem; for what purpose did Hakodosh Boruch Hu breathe into Man?

It’s because when you blow, you blow from yourself. And, when Hakodosh Boruch Hu blew into man, He blew from Himself. It means that in man there is something of the divine! That’s what it means when it says, “Man is made in the image of Hashem.”

And we’ll have to ponder these words because they have been misunderstood. They’ve been taken to mean that there is some faint resemblance, some complementary comparison of man to his Creator. Oh no! The chumash is not talking poetry. It’s talking straightforwardly and it states as clearly as could be that בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹקִים עָשָׂה אֶת הָאָדָם – He made man in His image! It’s far beyond whatever we would ever have said on our own – it actually means that there is something of Hakodosh Boruch Hu in men.

Now, what that means certainly must be explained because Hakodosh Boruch Hu doesn’t have any form; absolutely not. But He certainly does have greatness and glory. And His greatness and glory are infinite. He has wisdom and His wisdom is infinite. He has perfection of every kind and His perfection is infinite. And because Hakodosh Boruch Hu is infinitely great, what He put into Mankind is also infinite.

It doesn’t mean that you’re already perfect but it means that you possess within your soul a capability for endless perfection. בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹקִים עָשָׂה אֶת הָאָדָם means that Man has within him potential for infinite nobility, infinite glory, infinite wisdom, and infinite perfection.

Of course, nobody will live long enough to bring forth all of the qualities that are concealed within his neshama. But as long as you live you continue to have that opportunity to draw forth that reflection of Hashem’s infinite perfection. And it’s such a wondrous reflection that if you could live forever you would be capable of drawing forth endless and infinite greatness.

And all of that greatness, all of that potential perfection, is included in the word tzelem; all of these infinite attributes are reflected in the face of man. Tzelem comes from the word tzel; it means a shadow. A shadow is not the original thing but it reflects the original. Just like the original moves, the shadow also moves; it has the outlines of the original.

It’s like a picture that plays on the screen from a movie projector; you see forms moving but actually it’s nothing but color and outline – if you put your hand on the screen there’s nothing there. And the face of man is a form of a tzeil - a shadow of the Shechina; it is something that resembles Hakodosh Boruch Hu because it is a reflection being projected from the neshama, which itself is reflecting the kedusha of the Shechina.

And because this principle is so important, because it’s the foundation of the Torah, that’s why there has been raised against it a tremendous opposition; and in the last hundred years this opposition has become greater than ever before. That’s the theory of evolution; evolution is an open attack on the principle of the greatness & majesty of man, it’s an open war against this Torah principle of tzelem Elokim. The government is giving billions of dollars to help the evolutionists fight their war. Billions of dollars! NASA is trying to fly ships to all the planets in order to discover some other creatures who developed by accident in other ways.

All over the world, it’s evolution, shmevolution, wherever you turn. If you would consider how much literature is devoted to the subject of belittling man, if you would see the libraries and the institutions, the funding by governments, how many different branches of research have been established in the subject, you’ll see that there’s nothing in the world today that is getting as much attention as the attack on the greatness of Mankind.

Now, once you get into the habit of appreciating the tzelem Elokim in others, not only are you bestirred to the awareness of other people’s potential greatness, but you’ll recognize the tzelem Elokim on your own face. And that’s the most important awareness of all because it awakens within you a response. You feel that there really is something special there; that there’s actually a greatness bubbling up from within you. You feel closer to Hakodosh Boruch Hu and more aware of the great responsibility that you have while you are still alive, while the tzelem Elokim still reflects from your face. You’re not going to get another chance! This lifetime is your opportunity for greatness.

Your face is a mirror of Hashem! It’s a tzelem, a reflection of the Glory of the Creator!

That’s how important is the function of appreciating that when Hakodosh Boruch Hu breathed the neshama into man, He breathed something of Himself. Because it means the neshama is infinite. The greatness of man is beyond our ability to measure! And that’s one of the foundations of Torah – that man is so great that we can never fathom the depths of his importance! No matter how much we’ll discuss it, we’ll never reach the bottom of the depths of the greatness of Mankind.

As long as the heart beats within man, as long as he still breathes, the tzelem Elokim – the greatness of his neshama – shines from his noble face reminding himself and others of the infinite greatness that he should be always trying to draw forth from his soul.