Chasidut su Genesi 1:26

In the beginning (Bereshit) is a covenant/circumcision of fire (brit esh, which is made up of the same letters as bereshit, Zohar Chadash, Bereshit 276-280). This is in accordance with that which is written (Genesis 1:26), “Let Us make man,” in the plural. As it is found in the Gemara, that they asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Channaniah, “Why was man not created circumcised?” And the reason is that for everything, there must be arousal from below by a human action; and then one merits assistance from the heavens. Hence by way of our being engaged with the commandment of circumcision, which is a major action, we give the child the merit with which to have a holy soul and a heart circumcised for Torah.

Therefore, a person must believe with perfect faith, and fix in his heart and soul the unalterable belief that all of his knowledge is a created consciousness: his intellect is a created intellect, his apprehension is a created understanding, and God runs the world at every moment, managing His creation with individual Divine providence every second of creation’s existence. It is God who gives life and existence to all of the worlds and to all of forces that are emanated, created, formed and made.²⁴⁶He uses four terms for creation, paralleling the kabbalistic concept of the four worlds, Atzilut, Beriyah, Yetsirah, Asiyah. This is a way of saying that God runs all of the worlds, from the most sublime spiritual realm down to the lowly physical world. Not only this, but so too does He gives life and existence in this world to man’s mind, including this very understanding. God’s desire is that we take our knowledge and power of understanding and then go on to serve Him with our free will, which we are required to exercise. This is as it is written in the Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkun 70, page 137a): “Let us make a man” (Bereshit, 1:26). Man is required to perform the mitzvot of the Torah. He must devote his efforts to the Torah in order to work at it and guard it.²⁴⁷Based upon Bereshit 1:15. In this way he will have a good reward, and dominance over you (the angels).²⁴⁸According to the Sages, when God said in the plural, “Let us make a man,” He was consulting with His angels. The Zohar adds to this rest of the verse: “and they shall rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heaven,” which includes the angels themselves. Although they aided in man’s creation, his free will ultimately enables him to rule over them as well. This is why Israel is called (Yeshayahu, 60:21), “the branch of My planting, the work of My hands in which I will be glorified.” For even though the supernal angels are great in strength and always fulfill God’s word, still, their service is not ranked as truly mighty since they are programmed to serve and obey Him. They have no evil inclination that they may conquer, and do not have a body to contend with in order to serve God. For this reason, “let us make a man,” and he will rule over you. From this understanding and from this power of the intellect comes man’s power of choice, for it is God’s desire that man serve Him with his free will.

Shall it be that since, to the eyes of the corporeal human the world and human appear to be corporeal as well, these things are actually [entirely] corporeal, to the extent that we cannot use these terms to describe the upper worlds? If one has poor eyesight or is mentally unstable and a human appears to him to be an ape, but out of habit still calls this being ‘human’—would we say that this term is an inaccurate one for this being, and say that every person to whom this term is employed is thus derogatorily referred to as an ape? The dignified valence of the term remains in place, and the onus is on the ill person to be healed until he can accurately behold the human in his ‘form and image.’³⁶⁷Genesis 1:26. Since the Besht taught that when we gaze at the world we see God, each seeing divinity in the world according to his sanctification, why should we not call the upper worlds according to their true names, as in this world as well these distinctions and levels pertain? Is it because of dulled eyes or unstable mind which do not perceive the world as it truly is? But we know that in truth all is divinity, and these simply do not see accurately, and the onus is on them to raise their sight to truly see God’s world.³⁶⁸In truth, according to hasidism, the material world itself is constituted of divinity, as are the ‘upper worlds.’ As such, it is appropriate to utilize the same terminology to describe both worlds, as long as one recognizes that the significations are related yet distinct. The material ‘head’ is related to the supernal ‘head,’ mutatis mutandis.