What does it mean to be made in God’s image?

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(RNS) — For years I believed the phrase “made in the image of God” had become a pious slogan Jews slap on almost every issue — a phrase in danger of becoming a cliche. In an opinion piece in Commentary, and in my book “ Tikkun Ha’Am/Repairing Our People: Israel and the Crisis of Liberal Judaism ,” I asked out loud: Have we overused the phrase? Do we even know what it means?

I can now say, with confidence, that we know what it means, thanks to Tomer Persico, who teaches at the Shalom Hartman Institute and is the author of “ In God’s Image: How Western Civilization Was Shaped by a Revolutionary Idea.” Our conversation offers my clergy colleagues a gift: a sermon that you might choose to give this Shabbat, as we enter Bereshit.

In short form: The image of God (tzelem Elohim) might be the most important idea that the Jewish people offered to the world.

Let’s start with what “image” meant before Genesis got hold of it. In the ancient Near East, an image was not a symbol — it was actual presence. The only person who could represent the presence of God was — you guessed it — the king.…