Elul reflection #2 by Rabbi Marcia Plumb
What does it mean to be B’tzelem Elohim, a ‘child of God?’
My son is making a small stand out of wood. He continues to perfect it by sanding one bit, varnishing another, recutting a bit that sticks out, etc. He has tools set up on a table in the garage. Each tool has a different role in the project. Sometimes he’ll pick up the sander, or the saw, or the drill depending on what needs doing. He works on it every day. I’m beginning to wonder if it will ever be finished!
Our souls are like that small stand that we are trying to perfect. It is as if the wooden stand is a metaphor for our characters- our attitudes and behaviour. We have sharp corners (ie judgements) that need sanding down, or softening. We have rough edges that need to be made smooth, and old prejudices that need replacing.
And our characters are never perfect, and our work on ourselves is never finished. But little by little, small improvement by tiny change, we hone our souls to become the best, the holiest, we can be.
Mussar is the box of tools we use to finetune our souls, our characters. The Mussar tools are called middot, traits. Just like we read an instruction manual for a drill, so too, in Mussar, we study the texts about each trait, and learn how to use them to improve ourselves.
Our first middah/trait for our study together in Elul is Btzelem elohim. This middah comes from the creation story in Genesis and means ‘in the image of God.’ The middah teaches us how to see every person as a child of God, loved by God. Being created b’tzelem Elohim (Genesis 1:26)—in God’s image—means all of humanity should be afforded dignity and respect, regardless of their opinions. When someone’s comments makes us afraid, or we see behaviour that feels antisemitic, racist, islamaphobic or offensive, it makes sense to condemn that behaviour.
That does not mean we need to condemn the person. According to Beruriah in the Talmud, the person is not the ‘sin,’ or the ultimate problem. The behaviour or the words are the sin and problem. The person is the child of God who behaved badly. Mussar teaches us to treat the person with respect even when we reject the words they say. The trick is seeing the difference between the words and the human being.
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