What does God look like?

(26) And God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the cattle, and over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’ (27) And God created man in God's own image, in the image of God created him; male and female God created them. (28) And God blessed them; and God said unto them: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.’

(26) בצלמנו IN OUR IMAGE — in our imprint.

(26) כדמתנו AFTER OUR LIKENESS — with the power to comprehend and to discern.

(26) וירדו בדגת הים AND THEY SHALL HAVE DOMINION OVER THE FISH … [AND OVER THE BEASTS] — The expression וירדו may imply dominion as well as descending — if he is worthy he dominates over the beasts and cattle, if he is not worthy he will sink lower than them, and the beast will rule over him (Genesis Rabbah 8:12).

(27) ויברא אלהים את האדם בצלמו SO GOD CREATED THE MAN IN HIS IMAGE —in the type that was specially made for him, for everything else was created by a word, whilst he was brought into existence by hand, as it is said (Psalms 139:5) “And Thou hast laid thy hand upon me.” He was made by a seal as a coin that is made by a die that is called in old French coin. It is similarly said, (Job 28:14) “it is changed as clay under the seal” (Sanhedrin 38a).

Man was created alone to teach you that anyone who causes one Israelite life to be lost, the text accounts to him as if he caused a whole world to be lost. And anyone who sustains one Israelite life, the text accounts to him as if he sustained an entire world. And for the sake of peace among the creations--so that no man can say to his friend, "My father is greater than your father." And so that heretics will not claim "There are multiple powers in the heavens." And to testify to the greatness of the Holy Blessed One. For a man forges many coins from the same mold and each one is identical. But the King of kings of kings, the Holy Blessed One forges each man from the same mold of the original man and no one is like his fellow. Therefore each and ever person is obligated to say, "For me was the world created."

Our Rabbis have taught: A person should always be soft like a reed and not hard like a cedar.

One time, R. Eleazar the son of R. Simeon was coming from Migdal Gedor on his donkey, and he was feeling very happy because he had learned a lot of Torah.

He passed by a very ugly man who said to him "Peace be upon you."

R Eleazar did not answer. He said:

"Good for nothing! How ugly this man is!"

Then he asked him, "Are all the people of your city as ugly as you are?"

The man said: I do not know, but go and tell the artist who made me, how ugly is the vessel which you have made."

When R Eleazar realized he had done something wrong, he got down from his donkey and bowed in front of the man and asked for forgiveness.

He said to him: "I will not forgive you until you go to the artist that created me and tell him: how ugly is the vessel that you created."

R. Eleazar walked behind him until he reached his city. When the people who lived in the city came out to meet him and said "Peace be upon you rabbi and teacher," the ugly man asked them "Who are you calling Rabbi?

They replied, ...,‘The man who is walking behind you.’ ,He said to them: ,‘If this man is a rabbi, may there not be any more like him in Israel’!

,They asked him: ,‘Why’? ,

He replied: "He did such and such to me."They said to him: "Nevertheless, forgive him, for he is a man of great Torah learning."

The man replied: ‘For your sakes I will forgive him, ,but only if he does not make a habit of acting this way.’

Immediately, R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon went to the beit midrash (study house) and taught: "A man should always be soft like a reed and not hard like a cedar."

And for this reason the reed merited that of it should be made a quill for the writing of the Torah scroll, tefillin and mezuzot.

Rabbi Akiva (second century CE) taught: “‘Love your neighbor as yours self.’ (Leviticus, 19) This is the most important rule in the Torah.” Ben Azzai says: ‘This is the scroll of the generations of humanity… Humans was created in the image of God.’ (Genesis, 5) This is an even greater principle, so that one should not say ‘Because I have been humiliated, let my friend be humiliated with me, because I have been cursed, let my friend be cursed with me’.