Judaism:
Texts & Teachings

I. Creation: Genesis 1 & 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.

1. 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.

2. Kinship: Breath of Life

In Genesis we read that the Creator makes “living creatures,” creatures with soul (nephesh hayyim or nefesh chay/chayah/hayyah) by giving the “breath of life” (“soul wind” or ruach hayyim). In the original Hebrew the words for “breath of life” are identical for all living creatures (Genesis 1:21, 24 and Genesis 2:7), but English translations incorrectly lead readers to believe that we were given something different:

Genesis 2:7 is not the first usage of the term soul. It is present four times before in Genesis 1:20, 30 (where it’s translated, has life), and in Gen. 1:21, 24 (creature). Notice that from Genesis 1:20 to 2:7 the term nephesh is used five times. Importantly, in English, the translators omitted it twice and used the translation creature twice and soul once…
[T]ranslators took certain liberties… every time nephesh refers to animals (fish, fowl, fauna), they either omitted it or used creature. Only when it comes to man, do they use soul.

This point is essential because, from a Biblical Hebrew point of view, each animal and each man (i.e., human) is a nefesh, a soul, or a [living] creature. Importantly, Genesis teaches that God endowed all living creatures with the same breath of life.

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

3. 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 on earth. 

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. To be made in the image of God, then, is to be gifted important responsibilities and to be benevolent in our extended earthly community of beings. 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.”) 

4. 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)

Immediately after we are given dominion/rulership over anymals we are given a vegan diet (no flesh, dairy, eggs, or honey) and the weighty responsibilities of serving and protecting creation. God gives humans an overlordship that does not include eating any of the other creatures.

Scriptures do not say that we are more important or superior, only that we are made in the image of God and tasked with specific duties that are outlined in Genesis 2 (discussed shortly). Importantly, as presented in Genesis, human dominion is limited to anymals and, of critical importance, does not include the right to eat those we oversee. Also of note, only after the Creator explains what we are to eat (a vegan diet) is creation completed and pronounced “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

God created a world of complete peace and harmony, and scriptures tell readers how pleased the Creator is on seeing this peaceful world. God’s preference for a world without bloodshed speaks against eating anymals. Where there are plenty of other food options, this includes hunting and fishing. In comparison with much-respected patriarchs and their descendants, scriptures reveal hunters as fierce characters like Nimrod (Gen. 10:9) and Esau (Gen. 27:40). Scriptures forbid associating with those who are cruel, which must include those who hunt or fish when they could otherwise feed themselves without killing. Hunting and fishing for any reason other than necessity (a lack of access to vegan foods) trivializes life—God’s creation.

5. Creation as a Unified Good

Scriptures reveal anymals and their habitat as “good” outside of and prior to the existence of humanity (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, and 25). After we are given a vegan diet, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). A vegan creation is not merely good, but “very good.”

In Genesis, in this statement, the Creator expresses the singular goodness of all that has been made—collectively. According to Genesis 1, we are part of a good creation that is diverse and yet singular (and which was all intended to be vegan). All that exists is interconnected through the Creator, through the act of creation, through gifting the Breath of life to all living creatures, and through our shared purpose as Adam’s helpmates in serving God: Scriptures depict solidarity of creation.

6. 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 protecting and guarding, suggesting a work of love and caring.

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 serve, to work for someone as a servant or slave. ’Abad holds a sense of subjugation to rulership, in this case, servitude to the Creator.

While it is common to till and keep a garden for personal reasons, in scriptures the term ’abad indicates honoring and serving God. 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.

7. Shared Purpose:
Woman & Animals

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.” (Genesis 2:18–22)

Genesis 2 indicates that anymals and woman were created for the same purpose, so that man would not be alone and as a “helper as his partner” in the task of serving God through Creation. It is written that “there was not found a helper as his partner,” except in woman. This does not change the fact that woman and anymals are created for the same purpose, or that the purpose of all of creation points back to God. While it is clear that woman and man have a unique and special relationship, it is also clear that all living creatures and woman were created as companions to man, to work with Adam in guarding and protecting creation.

8. Humility

Scriptures expose the universe as a work of love. God is the center and measure of all. Human arrogance sometimes holds humanity at the center and as the measure of all, exposing humanism and denying core Jewish teachings.

Humility is embedded in the Creation story. We are all God’s living creatures, fellow servants of God. We were made on the 6th day (along with other land-dwelling creatures), and where creation is concerned, nowhere do scriptures teach of hierarchy or “othering”: Scriptures teach of community. Anymals are fellow creatures, living on their own terms, maintaining their own relationships with the Creator. Scriptures teach that all of us are God’s living creatures and that we are all fellow servants of God. Scriptures not only teach humility as a critical ethic but also indicate that this virtue is part of our most basic existence as creatures of God.