What is the most important sentence in the Torah?  It will probably not surprise you that the Rabbis are not in full agreement on this question (Sifra Kedoshim 4:12). Rabbi Akiba offers the verse, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18).  Many of us might agree with Rabbi Akiba.  Love of others is indeed fundamental to the Jewish tradition, and if you study Akiba’s life you see in this large-hearted man an embodiment of the principle.

But Akiba’s colleague Ben Azzai proposes another verse, one that we read this week: “This is the book of the generations of Adam (5:1).”  The first part of the verse is to let us know that we share common origins, but Ben Azzai also has in mind the end of the verse: “When God created human beings, God made them in the image of God.”

For Ben Azzai, genealogy is destiny.  The two fundamental teachings Judaism gave to the world are contained in one verse: First, we all spring from the same stock.  As the Mishnah puts it (San. 4:5), God created us all from one person (really one couple of course) so that no one could claim their ancestor is greater than that of others.   The verse goes further however – it reminds us that we are not only kin, but we are each created in the image of God.

This is a particularly powerful teaching this week.  When human beings commit evil acts, we condemn them not because they are animals, but because they are human, and violating the image of God within them.  We do not judge lions for their savagery, but we do judge human beings because they are capable of better.  When we see those whom they have victimized, we feel the same – overwhelming empathy for images of God who suffer.

We pray, all of us, for the restoration of order, the safety of the hostages, the comfort of the bereaved and that Israel continues to stand strong, safe and free.  Despite the hatreds that endure, in the face of those who do not honor the Divine image within themselves, the Jewish people will not stop insisting upon our essential message to the world: human life is holy and all human beings should see one another as kin.  As we begin to read the Torah again, perhaps the lesson of this verse will find a renewed resonance in a beleaguered world.