Genèse 1:26

"Let us make man:" We learn of the humility of the Holy One, blessed be He, from here. Since man was in the image of the angels and they would [hence] be jealous of him, therefore He took counsel with them. And when He judges kings, He consults with His retinue [of angels]; since thus we find with Achav, who was told by Micha (I Kings 22:19), "I have seen the Lord sitting on His throne, and the entire host of the heavens was standing over Him, on His right and on His left." And is there right and left in [His presence]? Rather [the intention is that], these were going to the right to find merit and those were going to the left to find guilt. And so [too] (Daniel 4:14), "The decree is in the word of the wakeful ones and in the statement of the holy ones is the proposition." Also here did He consult with His retinue and get their agreement: He said to them, "there are in the higher ones like my likeness, if there are not in the lower ones like my likeness, behold, there will be jealousy within the work of creation."

"Let us make man:" Even though they did not help Him in [man's] formation and there is [now] room for the heretics to rebel, the verse did not stop from teaching proper behavior and the trait of humility - that the greater should consult with and get the agreement of the lesser. And had it written, "I will make man," we would not learn that He spoke with His court, but rather [only] with Himself. And the answer to the heretics is written at its side: "And God created (yivra which is singular) man," and it did not write yivrau (plural).

"In our image:" In our mold.

"According to our likeness:" To understand and to have insight.

"And they shall have dominion (yirdu) over the fish of the sea:" This expression contains [both] an expression of dominion (ridui) and an expression of descent (yeridah). [Hence, it is saying that] if [man] merits [it], he will have dominion over the animals and the beasts; if he does not merit [it], he will become lowly in front of them and the animals will rule over him.

And the Lord said to the angels who ministered before Him, who had been created in the second day of the creation of the world, Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl which are in the atmosphere of heaven, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every reptile creeping upon the earth.

"Let us make man" - there are those who say that the word na'aseh is passive participle in the Nif'al verb construction, like, "and which was made (na'aseh) for one day" Nehemiah 5:18, and they [also] said that "in our image", "after our likeness" are the words of Moshe. Its meaning [would be]: G-d created man in his [own] image, where the vav [i.e., the pronominal suffix] refers back to man. And they would [further] explain: In the image of G-d, that the word "G-d" is attached to the word "made", as though it said that G-d made man in an image. But this is an explanation which lacks sense [haser lev], for the first passage should then have been thus: "And G-d said, 'let man be made'", and likewise, He made him "in his image" - how can "his" (the vav of b'tzalmo) refer to man, for then, he would have had an image before he would be [created]! And [further], what reason would there be [in the verse] such that “the one who spills the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed” – because man was made in his own image? There was an image for all living creatures! Now the Gaon said that me explanaion of “in our image, after our likeness” is regarding dominion. The meaning [of the verse] would [then] be: in the image that He as as good and appropriate though wisdom. And due to the honor owed man, the text attributes it to G-d, and likewise [with the verse] “and from his land did he go forth” Ezekiel 36:20, for to Hashem is the earth and its fullness. And he said [further] that the word na’aseh, though it is in plural, is the manner of royal speak [i.e., the plural of majesty]. Similarly, “we shall give nitnah to you also this one” Genesis 29:27. “We say before the king” Daniel 2:36, “perhaps I will be able and we will smite him” Numbers 22:6. But these witnesses are false witnesses, for nitnah is [actually] the nif’al verb construction, and similarly “the city is given” nitnah Jeremiah 32:24, and the vav converts it to the future tense, like is the rule with all past-tense verbs, meaning “she will be given to you”. And “we shall smite him” – he [Balak] and his camp, or it could be the infinitive of the verb, like “clease nakeh, I shall not clease you” Jeremiah 46:28. And even though we do find “they were not smitten” Exodus 9:32, [nevertheless], only that verb construction (pu'al) lacks an infinitive form – and R. Moshe of Spain erred in his book …

AND G-D SAID: ‘LET US MAKE MAN.’ There was a special command dedicated to the making of man because of his great superiority since his nature is unlike that of beasts and cattle which were created with the preceding command.
The correct explanation of na’aseh (let us make) [which is in the plural form when it should have been in the singular] is as follows: It has been shown to you that G-d created something from nothing only on the first day, and afterwards He formed and made things from those created elements. Thus when He gave the waters the power of bringing forth a living soul, the command concerning them was Let the waters swarm. The command concerning cattle was Let the earth bring forth. But in the case of man He said, Let us make, that is, I and the aforementioned earth, let us make man, the earth to bring forth the body from its elements as it did with cattle and beasts, as it is written, And the Eternal G-d formed man of the dust of the ground, and He, blessed be He, to give the spirit from His mouth, the Supreme One, as it is written, And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And He said, In our image, and after our likeness, as man will then be similar to both. In the capacity of his body, he will be similar to the earth from which he was taken, and in spirit he will be similar to the higher beings, because it [the spirit] is not a body and will not die. In the second verse, He says, In the image of G-d He created him, in order to relate the distinction by which man is distinguished from the rest of created beings. The explanation of this verse I have found ascribed to Rabbi Joseph the Kimchite, and is the most acceptable of all interpretations that have been advanced concerning it.
The meaning of tzelem is as the word to’ar (appearance), as in ‘Vetzelem’ (And the appearance) of his face was changed; similarly, Surely ‘b’tzelem’ (as a mere appearance) man walketh; When Thou arousest Thyself ‘tzalmam’ (their appearance) Thou wilt despise,, 73:20. that is, the appearance of their countenance. And the meaning of the word d’muth is similarity in form and deed, as things that are akin in a certain matter are called similar to each other. Thus man is similar both to the lower and higher beings in appearance and honor, as it is written, And Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor,, 8:6. meaning that the goal before him is wisdom, knowledge, and skill of deed. In real likeness his body thus compares to the earth while his soul is similar to the higher beings.

ויאמר, G’d addressed His angels.

נעשה אדם, these words have to be understood as in Kings I 22,19-22. In these verses the prophet Jeremiah depicts a conversation in the celestial regions between G’d and His angels and they discuss how to trap Achav through a deliberately false message by the false prophet Michayu, into bringing about his own destruction as retribution for his judicial murder of Navot the Yezreelite. We find similar references to G’d “consulting” in Isaiah 6,8 as well as in Job 1,6 where G’d is described as giving Satan leeway in his treatment of Job בצלמנו, in the image of the angels. [It could not refer to G’d seeing that no one had ever seen something that could be described as an “image” of G’d, the totally spiritual Being. Ed.]

כדמותנו, similar to us (angels) in our intellectual faculties. This is borne out by the fact that when man’s spiritual decline is described in Psalms 49,3 his intelligence at that time is compared to a בהמה, a domesticated mammal.

וירדו, the root of the word is רדה to exercise authority, dominion. The construction is similar to that of ויבכו, derived from בכה, and ויעש, derived from עשה, the last root letter being dropped in all of these examples.

ויאמר אלוקים נעשה, at this point G’d endowed His entourage to carry out the task assigned to it.

אדם, another one of the species referred to as נפש חיה, one known as אדם. This is why we read in Genesis 2,7 ויהי האדם לנפש חיה, “Adam became one of the species known as נפש חיה.”

בצלמנו, a species designed to live forever seeing that it is predominantly intellectual. By doing this, G’d provided an opening by means of His Torah to acquire an understanding of the nature of purely spiritual, disembodied beings such as angels. Our soul has been given the key to understand something about the nature of such beings.

כדמותנו, acting intelligently like the angels, though from free choice, not like the angels who act under Divine compulsion. In this respect, though the angels are celestial beings, they do not resemble man. In this respect man is a little more like G’d Himself than are the angels, though our habitat is in the “lower” regions of the universe. The principal difference between G’d’s total freedom of action and that of man’s is that G’d’s freedom of action is always put to a constructive use, whereas man frequently abuses his G’d given freedom to oppose the expressed will of His Creator. At any rate, not being hampered by the limitations imposed by having a body, the qualitative freedom of G’d is far superior to that of man, and this is why the Torah uses the comparative כדמותנו, to show that the comparison is limited.

ויאמר אלוקים נעשה אדם, in connection with all the other matter created in the “lower” regions of the universe, G’d issued a directive to earth phrasing it in the third person, i.e. indirect mode such as תדשא הארץ, “let earth produce herbs,”(verse 11) or ישרצו המים, “let the waters teem, etc.” (verse 24). When it came to creating the human being, the last of the creatures composed of several elements, He said נעשה אדם in the first person. Man was created last, as a sign that he is the crown jewel of creation, to make clear that all the creatures who preceded him in the order in which they were created are to serve as making life more pleasant and convenient for him. He is to be master of them all.
When the Torah wrote נעשה in the first person plural mode, my father explained this as including the various elements all of which had also been the product of G’d’s creative activity which had aimed at ultimately creating man. G’d implied that in creating man He would make use of all the ingredients in the universe that He had already created. They were all His partners in that respect, supplying parts of the raw material G’d used to make man. We may understand the entire line as if G’d had said to all these raw materials: “let us, you and Me together, construct a human being.” We find that our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 8,3 took a similar approach when they said that G’d consulted when creating heaven and earth. Rashi explains that the plural in the word נעשה is accounted for by the fact that G’d consulted with the angels. They could be included in the “we,” seeing that both G’d and the angels share the fact that they are disembodied intelligences. G’d meant to imply that man would share an attribute with Himself and the angels, namely an intelligence which was not dependent on the body.
We are taught in Bereshit Rabbah 8.3 that the Torah wanted to teach us by the wording of this verse that whenever 2 people who are disparate in stature plan an undertaking involving both of them, the intellectually superior one should consult with the other before going ahead on his own. Furthermore, in the same paragraph of Bereshit Rabbah, Rabbi Shemuel bar Nachman in the name of Rabbi Yonathan says that at the time when Moses had to write down the details of everything G’d had created on each of the six “days,” he balked when he came to this verse. He asked G’d if this formulation would not encourage heretics to think that G’d had a partner (as Divinity). G’d …