{"id":80286,"date":"2020-09-23T11:30:38","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T08:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=80286"},"modified":"2020-09-23T11:30:38","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T08:30:38","slug":"humanitys-role-in-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/humanitys-role-in-creation\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanity\u2019s Role in Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"80286","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38047,"related_cahpter":"575","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"No reasonable Creator would leave Creation in the hands of a worthless steward\r\n\r\n","content":"

What is humanity\u2019s role in creation?<\/span><\/p>\n

After wondering why the infinite God would pay any attention to mortal humans, the psalmist then glorifies them as only a \u201clittle less than divine\u201d and \u201cadorned with glory and majesty.\u201d Worthless or nearly divine? The tension remains unresolved. Or does it?<\/span><\/p>\n

The next verses declare that humans have authority over God\u2019s handiwork, which has been placed at their feet. This supports a claim of human value. No reasonable Creator would leave Creation in the hands of a worthless steward. This raises another question. Is humanity assigned the heavy responsibility of good governance or granted license to trample creation under its feet?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jewish tradition contains voices on both sides of the argument with much of the debate appearing in commentaries on Genesis 1:27-28, and based on opposing ideas about the substance of sovereignty. An early voice who stresses the utilization of creation was Rav Sa\u2018adiah Gaon, (Egypt, 882-\u200eBaghdad 942) who explains that ruling the fish of the sea \u200eincludes all of the techniques used to catch fish, and preparing them to be eaten (and so on for other parts of creation). \u200e<\/span><\/p>\n

What does this mean for human \u200erule over the rest of creation, 1200 years later when we have technology that is far more powerful than anyone in the 9<\/span>th<\/span> century could imagine?<\/span><\/p>\n

The prophet Ezekiel gives us some direction when, in God\u2019s name (in chapter 34), he berates the kings who abuse their position rather than ensuring the flourishing of their charges. Or as Prof. Tikva Frymer-Kensky explains, \u201cthe essential position of humankind in the cosmos is not the farmer, but the executive\u2026 the one who keeps everything going properly.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like executives required to give the owner (God, in this case) a full accounting of their management of the property in the care, humans must be \u200ecautious in their use of natural resources. Human power and intellect comes with responsibility \u201cnot to be a ruthless tyrant, but a \u200eresponsible ruler of the world of nature\u201d (Robert Gordis). Rather than a dichotomy between \u201chumanity is above and separate from the natural world\u201d and \u201chumanity is a basically undifferentiated\u00a0 part of the natural world,\u201d the biblical model contends that humans, because of our greater intellect, are in fact responsible for the natural world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Returning the initial tension, humans who are \u201clittle less than divine\u201d and have great power over the creation, need to have their power reigned by a reminder that they might not actually be worthy of divine attention, lest the power goes to our heads.<\/span><\/p>\n

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