Survey finds that majority of human beings are made in the image of God

(a parody)

Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the Elders, and the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly. It may not last.

A recent study looking at the black fire and the white fire of the Torah released last Wednesday by those who hold fast to it found that over 51% of human beings are made in the image of God, including 12% who are identified as strangers as we were strangers in the land of Egypt. There are caveats and criticisms of these statistics, namely that if all people’s lives were sacred we would have a lot of explaining to do about the way our institutions have behaved for the last two-to-thirty years, and that the Torah bunches together substantially different kinds of people as “neighbors,” including some whom armed thugs are currently deporting off of our streets while we bellyache about Mamdani. (May God bless and keep the ICE gestapo … far away from us!)

Yet the findings of the study — “From Sinai to Normy Synagogues: Mapping the Current State and Future of Rabbinic Wisdom” — indicate a body of Jewish teachings whose implications are substantially different from the stiffnecked Jewish population they are supposed to redeem. Several leading figures within the Jewish communal world told eJewishPhilanthropy that these findings are both a symptom of and a contributor to a progressive drift among those who take Torah seriously — such as doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God — which may put them at odds with mainstream Jewish communal organizations. They added that it will make it far more difficult for it to be a Tree of Life for those who hold fast to it if all of its wealthiest supporters aren’t happy.

These figures, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of being criticized as apostates or otherwise second-guessing the revelation at Sinai and two thousand years of subsequent rabbinic tradition, stressed that the issue is not the idea that some people are special and holy, with which they wholeheartedly agree when they look in the mirror, and sometimes even at their grandchildren, but the significantly disproportionate amount of people the Torah teaches were descended from the first human and can say the world was created for them – namely: all of them. This, they said, indicates that the teachings of the Torah are increasingly perceived as a counter cultural narrative, which does not bode well in terms of financial support from the typically more mainstream donors who tell American Jews what we will do and we will listen.

The study may have other flaws and omissions, observers suggest. Most notably, despite the issue of the modern State of Israel and Zionism being hotly debated within the Jewish world, there is scant mention of the topics, with only a brief mention of the fact that “the Earth is the LORD’s and all that it holds, the world and its inhabitants.” (Psalms 24:1)

“The study had to be bounded in some ways,” HaZaL told eJP. The parameters that were set turned it and turned it again, but to truly reflect all that is within it would require looking into it, and becoming grey and old therein.

“The distinctions between those who do not do to others what is hateful to them and just about all of the Jews at kiddush are well enough known that this would have been a very different study,” HaZaL said. “It would have been its own study, frankly.”

Still, it’s the Divine image statistic that is gaining the most attention, even though the study cautions it “may be an overestimate.”

From a demographic standpoint, the 51% figure does not align with the Jewish community’s overall conduct. People made in God’s image and likeness would be feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and protecting widows and orphans. Four times as many of us would be unlocking the fetters of wickedness, and untying the cords of the yoke to let the oppressed go free, especially right now.

For many in the Jewish community, the large number of Torah teachings that guide Jews down paths of righteousness really isn’t an issue, especially for most American Jews, especially those below 50.

The turn away from Torah is often based on convenience, not ideology. People are choosing to put stumbling blocks before the blind, to harden their hearts against the needy in the land, to stand idly by the blood of their fellow, and to skip doing what is right and good in the eyes of the LORD because being in covenant with the one God Who does not slumber is just really inconvenient when you’re trying to stay in the good graces of tyrants or keep your tax margin low.

Still, senior figures within the Jewish community raised concerns to eJP that the results may make it more difficult for the Torah to receive funding.

Joelle Novey causes concern to leading figures within the Jewish communal world from Silver Spring, Maryland. She is both a symptom of and a contributor to progressive drift.