In the beginning, the Holy One created swarms of every kind of creature, but just one human being. The Mishna suggests that “a single person was created to teach that anyone who destroys a single human life, is as if he destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves a single human life is as if he saved an entire world.”
At the core of our tradition is the idea that humanity is created in God’s holy image – that all life is of ultimate and infinite value. And if every human life is of infinite value, then every human life is of equal value. “Again, but a single person was created for the sake of peace among humankind, that one should not say to another, “My father was greater than your father.” (Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5)
The Israelites arrive in the wilderness of Sinai. This mixed-multitude of recently liberated slaves, who for weeks bitterly lamented their fate, wondering where they would find food or water, how they would defend themselves from attack, have somehow begun to forge a sense of unity.
The people have finally come to be one with each other, to live in service to one another. And now the Holy One seeks to be one with them.
How should God begin? How should God order these instructions? What should be first among God’s commandments? You shall not murder? You shall not steal? Honor your father and mother? What’s most important?
God opens with an introduction: “I am YHVH your God, who led you out of the land of Egypt, from a house of bondage.” (Exodus 20:2) And then…
“You shall have no other gods beside Me.” (Exodus 20:3)
Why was this the most important? What did God begin with this?
Rashi answers that God wanted to prevent people from imagining things as divine “which are not gods, but others have made them gods over themselves.”
In Egypt, all manner of things were named as gods – a god for the river, a god for the sun. But at the center of it all was Pharaoh, who deemed himself divine – a man who thought himself a god.
And this is the paradox of what Judaism has taught for centuries. On the one hand, every person is created in God’s image, which makes each of us unique and holy and precious. And on the other hand none of us is God – each of us is simply human.
Why was this the most important lesson God could teach us? Because invariably in society, there is not only the temptation but the necessity for some people to wield power over others.
In any society, some people will be stronger than others, faster and more agile. In any society, some people will be more talented at math and logic, others more adept at language, others more skilled in the arts, others more affable and gregarious, with higher emotional intelligence.
In order for societies to best leverage its people’s diverse talents and strengths, leaders must emerge to help the community set its goals and realize its ambitions.
That requires leaders to accept a sacred trust – that they will not fashion themselves as gods over their people, but instead choose an ethic of service, to their people and to the one God from whom all of us derive our souls, our spirits, and our worth.
Throughout history, time and again humanity has been tempted to name some of their own as gods. Century after century, individuals arose who sought to be gods, breaking the sacred trust with the people subjected to their rule, demanding fealty and worship, amassing ever greater power and wealth. Inevitably tyranny and oppression followed close behind.
And that was what God wanted most desperately for us to vanquish.
Nothing we might fashion by the work of our hands is worthy of our worship. No person we might elevate is ever to be considered a god.
Instead, each of us is commanded to pledge our devotion to no god other than the Creator of the Universe, the Source of Goodness under whose rule all of us are equal, and who commands us to build a holy society in which love and justice, freedom and peace will reign supreme.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Dan Levin
Temple Beth El of Boca Raton
