Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Awit 49:21

Seeing that man shares common features with the essence of vegetation as well as with the essence of the mobility of the animals, he had to be equipped with an abstract intelligence in order for him to represent a higher stage of development than the stages of physical phenomena which preceded him. Even though all these facts are something we observe daily with our own eyes, Scripture nonetheless confirmed these facts. This is why we read in Job 35,11: “who gives us more knowledge than the beasts of the earth, makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?” By means of this additional intellect man proceeds to examine both his physical dimension as well as his spiritual dimension. He evaluates their respective worth. When man succeeds in making his spirituality his dominating feature he is likened to מלאך ה' צבאות, “an angel of the Lord G’d of Hosts” (Malachi 2,7), whereas when he allows his physicality to dominate him, placing his intellect into the service of his body, he is compared to the beasts as we know from Psalms 49,21 נמשל כבהמות נדמו, “he is like the beasts that perish (have no afterlife).”
David is at pains to warn man not to allow this to happen when he says (Psalms 32,8) “Let me enlighten you and show you which way to go; let me offer you counsel; my eye is on you.” He warns man further not to follow his “nature,” i.e. physicality, saying in verse nine of the same psalm: “be not like a senseless horse or mule whose movement must be curbed by bit and bridle; far be it from you!”...

מיד כל חיה AT THE HAND OF EVERY BEAST — Because the generation of the Flood sinned and they were therefore freely exposed to become food for wild beasts which would have power over them — as it is said (Psalms 49:21), “He is ruled over by wild beasts like the beasts that perish” (these being the prey of other animals) (Shabbat 151b) — it was therefore necessary to proclaim a punishment against wild animals on their account.

בצלם אלוקים, when the word אלוקים appears as a description, i.e. in the nature of an adjective, it refers to creatures who are spiritual in their essence, not just that they possess spiritual potential. Such beings are devoid of such physical matter, are totally disembodied. This is what makes them basically infinite. This is the reason why such an adjective, attribute, is applied to G’d as well as to His angels. The term is also used in connection with judges, i.e. describing the predominating intellectual function they must perform if their decisions are to reflect true justice. Whereas it is an undisputed fact that the human intellect operates without direct dependence on any part of the body, that it does not age along with the remainder of the body it inhabits, but, on the contrary, sometimes improves while the body ages and becomes barely able to sustain the soul which inhabits it, and while it is also a fact that exercise of the intellect does not result in fatigue, etc, it is still not called אלוקים, something divine, but only צלם אלוקים, “something which mirrors something divine.” Until this intellect has acquired חכמה, i.e. a reverence for G’d and love for Him, its Creator, it is completely imperfect. It follows that it is man’s task to perfect his G’d given intelligence by acquiring the knowledge and insights which can be provided only by the study of Torah and by the practice of the laws of the Torah. If man, i.e. religiously atheistic intellectuals, do not use their intellect in the manner G’d meant for them to use it, it actually becomes a negative asset, a hindrance, so that in the end it turns out to be completely vain, as pointed out in Psalms 49,21 אדם ביקר ולא יבין נמשל כבהמות ידמו, “if man does not understand the divine gift his intellect represents he is comparable to the beasts which perish.” This entire lesson is condensed in the two words בצלם אלוקים.