Each of us is a messenger, created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of
God.
Most
of us have heard the expression that we are created “b’tzelem Elohim”, in the
image of God. Usually, we understand it
to be a mandate of how we should act toward and treat each other. Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik has another
idea. He says is that each one of us is a messenger, created B’tzelem
Elohim, in the image of God. That is, we have a mission and a purpose which
we are intended to fulfill while on earth.
He writes and I quote “The fact that someone lives in a certain time, in
a specific era, in a defined place and was not born in a different period and
[in] other circumstances-[can be understood … if we accept the essential
concept that every human is a messenger [for God].” Each individual (with all the limitations and
personal capacities incorporated in her) has her mission.
Clearly,
that is true of Moses. Despite his lack
of confidence in his ability to speak and his having been raised as a prince of
Egypt, it very clear that he was to be God’s messenger and his “calling” as it
were, was to lead the children of Israel out from their slavery in Egypt, to
trek with them through the wilderness and to lead them to Canaan, the Land that
God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and to Jacob.
In the story of Purim we read about another example of a messenger
for God. Esther like Moses, was
reluctant to embrace the role that she was intended to fill based on the time,
the place and the circumstances in which she found herself. In her case, it was not God who made her
mission clear, but her cousin Mordecai who told her that it was her responsibility
to use her position as the queen of Persia to save the lives of the Jews. “You must be proactive on behalf of your
people,” Mordecai said. “Do not imagine
that you…will escape with your life by being in the King’s castle….And who knows, perhaps you have attained [your]
royal position for just some time as
this.”
Most of us would say that our lives are “good”-everything
is going as planned. But occasionally, when the unexpected happens, we are
blessed with the opportunity to look closely and figure out how we are supposed
to respond to unforeseen and often unwelcome circumstances. In that sense, Moses was lucky. Despite all
his feelings of inadequacy and his reluctance to accept his mission, between the subversive actions of the midwives,
the burning bush and his face to face communication with God, there was not a
shadow of a doubt about what his life’s mission was to be.
With a wise and powerful message from Mordecai, Esther, at
first reluctantly, was able to understand and to fulfill her unique mission.
Neither Moses nor Esther would have thought of themselves
as having been created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. They wouldn’t have articulated that they had
their own internal spark of the Divine that enabled them to work as a partner
with God to fulfill the particular mission for which their lives were
intended. It is likely that most of
us also don’t think of ourselves in
those terms. And it is probable that
even now that the thought has been planted, our own Divine spark has been buried
beneath all the routines and messiness with which we live our daily lives. Our internal
Divine spark is so hidden that, even now, we doubt that it exists.
Rabbi Shefa Gold tells a story in her book, Torah Journeys,
about some jealous angels who are asked to hide the spark of the Divine [somewhere]
in the world.
‘Let’s put it atop the highest mountain’, offers one.
‘No’, says another, ‘The human is very ambitious; he will find it there.
‘Well then, let’s bury it beneath the deepest sea.’
‘That won’t work either,’ another chimes in. ‘The human is
very resourceful. She will even find
it there.’
After a moment’s thought the wisest angel says, ‘I know.
Put it inside the human heart. They will never look there.’” (p. 70)
Help us remember never to forget that each one of us is
created in the image of God. May we learn to embrace, to cherish and to trust
our own internal Divine spark, so that individually and as a community we can
fulfill the mission and become the messengers that we are intended to be.
