Monday Motivation with Rabbi Garfinkel
Oct 12, 2026 · 23 min · 10 segments
Humans are made in Divine Image. We are NOT animals. And the battle of history hinges on this point. And every decision in your life depends on it as well! ENJOY! Be inspired! You are made in Hashem's…
All right, and I could go on advertising, but let's get to it right away.
And in chapter one, verse 30, verse 26, it says the following, "Vayomer Elokim na'aseh adam b'tsalmenu k'dmutenu." God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." Okay, and because the, uh, Adam is made, human being was made in God's image, they are given a stewardship, a control over all of creation, particularly the animals, but everything.
It says, "Vayirdu bidgat hayam," and they will literally come down upon, but means to control, the fish of the sea, "ub'of hashamayim," and the birds of the heavens, "ub'ha'behemah," and also the land animals, "ub'chol ha'aretz," and all the land, "ub'chol ha'remes," or remes, everything, creeps, everything, everything, everything- And he, and so that is the concomitant responsibility.
And ipso facto, that means that we have the responsibility to control and to utilize the world for divine purpose.
Now, let's drill down.
Well, what does it mean to be made in tzelem Elokim? Well, later on, it's very interesting.
Onkelos was actually a relative, some say even a nephew of the Roman Caesar at the time when the Romans were controlling Israel.
And he was so blown away by Judaism that he converted.
Not only did he convert, he wrote the translation.
And in fact, there's a halacha, a Jewish law that says that when you're printing up a Chumash, when you're printing up a printed Torah, not a Torah scroll that the scribe writes, when you're printing a Torah, it must have Targum Onkelos, Onkelos' work of translating into Aramaic, which is basically a cousin, a sister language of Hebrew.
And that is the, that was the lingua franca of the day.
All right, and I could go on advertising, but let's get to it right away.
And in chapter one, verse 30, verse 26, it says the following, "Vayomer Elokim na'aseh adam b'tsalmenu k'dmutenu." God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." Okay, and because the, uh, Adam is made, human being was made in God's image, they are given a stewardship, a control over all of creation, particularly the animals, but everything.
It says, "Vayirdu bidgat hayam," and they will literally come down upon, but means to control, the fish of the sea, "ub'of hashamayim," and the birds of the heavens, "ub'ha'behemah," and also the land animals, "ub'chol ha'aretz," and all the land, "ub'chol ha'remes," or remes, everything, creeps, everything, everything, everything- And he, and so that is the concomitant responsibility.
And ipso facto, that means that we have the responsibility to control and to utilize the world for divine purpose.
Now, let's drill down.
Well, what does it mean to be made in tzelem Elokim? Well, later on, it's very interesting.
Onkelos was actually a relative, some say even a nephew of the Roman Caesar at the time when the Romans were controlling Israel.
And he was so blown away by Judaism that he converted.
Not only did he convert, he wrote the translation.
And in fact, there's a halacha, a Jewish law that says that when you're printing up a Chumash, when you're printing up a printed Torah, not a Torah scroll that the scribe writes, when you're printing a Torah, it must have Targum Onkelos, Onkelos' work of translating into Aramaic, which is basically a cousin, a sister language of Hebrew.
And that is the, that was the lingua franca of the day.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.