I. Creation: Genesis 1 and 2

In the act of creating, God establishes ideal relations among living creatures, assigning specific tasks to humanity, thereby revealing God’s intentions for the created world while also providing a close-up look at the nature of God. Genesis conveys what God gave human beings to eat and what the Creator commanded after giving humanity dominion. Only Genesis 1 and 2 reveal God’s vision for Creation: God’s vision of a place of abiding peace, kinship, and kindness—a holy place.

A. Kinship: Sixth Day

And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make humankind....” (Genesis 1:23-26, also Genesis 31—the rest of Genesis 1:26 is covered below in the section titled “Rulership in the Image of God”)

In Genesis 1, God creates light, land and water, vegetation, and living creatures, who are created in groups according to where they live (water, air, and land). Humans are created on the sixth day with other land anymals, showing our place among living creatures. People tend to mis-read this narrative so as to come away with the false notion that only humanity was created on the 6th day. In this we imagine ourselves separate and distinct in ways that are not true to scripture: We are living creatures of the earth among living creatures of the earth. We are not divine and are rightly categorized among the earth’s many animals.

Sheep and turkey sharing company at Freedom Farm, a vegan sanctuary in Moshav Olesh, Israel. (Image courtesy of Freedom Farm.)

One chick is enough to keep hope alive for Israeli anymal activist, Adi Winter.  (Image courtesy of “Daniel” and Animals Now.)

Hasidic Jews believe that souls transmigrate, that they are reborn in another body, adding yet another level of connection across species (Schochet 251–53). Through transmigration, all living creatures are interrelated as past, future, and present family and friends.

C. Rulership in the Image of God

Genesis 1 informs that human beings are created in the “image” (slm or tzelem) of God.

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humankind in his image, 
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

Genesis 1 teaches that human beings are created in the “image” (slm or tzelem) of God. Scholars agree that the meaning of “image” or “likeness” is not physical: Humanity and God do not look alike. In other writings from roughly the same time and place (Egypt and Mesopotamia), it is clear that earthly rulers were regarded “as God’s representative in creation,” they were “the image or likeness of the deity” in both “function and position” (Hiebert 138). 

To be created in the image of God is to be created to rule, to have “dominion” or “overlordship” (radha) on earth in God’s stead—on behalf of the Creator as God would do (or have us do). Dominion requires that we serve divine interests, not our own (Schochet 144). To be made in the image of God, then, is to be gifted important responsibilities. We are to be “benevolent leaders”,” to “walk among and have a relationship” with God’s creation (“Subdue’ n.p.). Our rulership/dominion is not about power or privilege, it is about serving God. (For more on the nature of God, see 4.3.II. “Creator.”) 

The three months I spent at the lab [a vivisection lab in Jerusalem]as an undercover investigator opened my eyes to injustice, cruelty, and corruption. But it also taught me about my strength to change realities, as my footage and testimonies brought the release of Malish [a Macaque monkey] and his three friends from the lab and several changes in vivisection laws of Israel. Malish was brought to the wonderful Israeli Primate Sanctuary Foundation where he became the head of his group. He always treats both monkeys and humans gently and kindly. (Noga Shanee, Ph.D., n.p.) 

Do His will as if it were your own. (Pirkei Avot, Avot 2:4)

D. Vegan Dominion

Though some English translations wrongly state that humans are given dominion over all of creation, humans are only given “dominion” over anymals. Importantly, our dominion does not allow us to eat the other living beings:

God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Gen. 1:29–31)

Bottle feeding an ailing piglet rescued from the local Johannesburg (South Africa) dump. Piglet was nurtured to health at a local sanctuary home.  (Image courtesy of We Animals Media.)

F. Duties Assigned by God

Our divinely ordained role is further clarified: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). “Shamar,” translated here as “keep,” also appears in Numbers 6:24, “The Lord bless you and keep you.” In Numbers, “shamar” clearly indicates “protect” or “guard,” revealing “a loving, caring, sustaining” endeavor (DeWitt 353).

Translated into English as “till” or “cultivate” in Genesis 2:15, ’abad, is translated as “serve” in Joshua 24:15: “choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served . . . or the gods of the Amorites.” In common use, the meaning of ’abad can be “to cultivate” but the general meaning of the term is “to work, to process, to perform, to labor, to serve (as a servant or slave)” (“Biblical Vocabulary” n.p.) ’Abad holds a sense of subjugation to rulership, whether to landowner or master or Creator (“’Abad” n.p.).

While it is common to till and keep a garden for personal reasons, in “strict theological, spiritual use,” the term ’abad means “to serve (the Lord God), to worship, to honor” (“Biblical Vocabulary” n.p.). Genesis 2 teaches that humans were created to “serve (work) and safeguard the Earth” (Hirsch n.p.; also see Horeb); an accurate English translation of Genesis 2:15 would reveal humans as placed in the Garden of Eden to serve God through creation on behalf of the Creator. A close read of scriptures reveals that animals were not given to us or made for us, but instead, we were made to serve God through creation.

Billy was unable to stand or walk and suffered urine burns from lying helplessly on the ground in his own waste. Billy’s hind legs were paralyzed. The goat milk farm where he had been born tagged him “for immediate slaughter.”

As a special needs patient, Billy was fitted with a splints to strengthen and stabilize his hind legs at the correct angle and when his legs got a little stronger, Billy was fitted to a wheelchair that supported his hind legs. As he grew, new wheelchairs were fitted so that Billy could continue to run and play like other young goats, as God intended. (Freedom Farm, “Hi, I’m Billy,” n.p.)

Billy at Freedom Farm, a vegan sanctuary in Moshav Olesh, Israel. (Images courtesy of Freedom Farm.)

Gili and Miri at Freedom Farm, a vegan sanctuary in Moshav Olesh, Israel. (Image courtesy of Nir Elias/Reuters and Yahoo.com: News.)

The preserved body of a passenger pigeon, now an extinct species. (Image Courtesy of The Smithsonian Museum)

Hieronymous Bosch, “Garden of Earthly Delights,” circa 1500 AD. (Image courtesy of Wikkipedia.)

The Jewish worldview entails a loving and generous Creator who created a world that can exist, and can only exist, through the deity’s attentive care. Scriptural commentary and Midrash interpretation affirm that God’s love, mercy, justice, and protection extend to all of creation, that each living being is personally and individually important to the Creator. Knowing this is critical in shaping our duties of caretaking on behalf of God, in God’s image: “Jewish sages state that to be ‘created in the Divine Image’ means that people have the capacity to emulate the Divine compassion for all creatures” (Schwartz 156).

To “image God is to image God’s love and law . . . to reflect God’s goodness, righteousness, and holiness . . . wisdom . . . and justice” (DeWitt 354). Serving and protecting creation on behalf of the Creator does not permit using anymals as petri dishes, enslaving them for entertainment or for educational purposes, or killing them for clothing, food, or sport.

Compassion for all creatures, including animals, is not only God’s business; it is a virtue that we too must emulate. Moreover, compassion must not be viewed as an isolated phenomenon, one of a number of religious duties in the Judaic conception of the Divine service. It is central to our entire approach to life. (David Sears, Rabbi, 19)

Chassidic master Rabbi Zusya of Hanipol was traveling to collect money to ransom prisoners. He came to an inn and in one room found a large cage with many types of birds. He saw that the birds wanted to fly out of the cage and be free again. He burned with pity for them and said to himself, “Here you are, Zusya, walking your feet off to ransom prisoners. But what greater ransoming of prisoners can there be than to free these birds from their prison?” He then opened the cage, and the birds flew out into freedom.
The innkeeper shouted at Zusya: “You fool! How could you rob me of my birds and make worthless the good money I paid for them?” Zusya replied: “Have you read these words in the Psalms: ‘His tender mercies are over all His work’?” (Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., Judaism, 30)

Yael and his friend greet a visitor at Freedom Farm, a vegan sanctuary in Moshav Olesh, Israel. (Image courtesy of Nir Elias/Reuters and Yahoo.com: News.)

Elk along the TransCanada Highway in Alberta. (Image courtesy of We Animals Media.)

Sangamithra Iyer, Emma, and Gwen at Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzeee Rescue Center in Cameroon: Sangamithra Iyer holding Emma, and Gwen; Gwen grooming Niete. (Images courtesy of Sangamithra Iyer.)