21st Century Bible Hebrew -- meaning vs. translation

Genesis 1:26-27

כו וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ וְיִרְדּוּ֩ בִדְגַ֨ת הַיָּ֜ם וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּבְכָל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וּבְכָל־הָרֶ֖מֶשׂ הָֽרֹמֵ֥שׂ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ:
כז וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם:

Translation: Gd said It is decreed that man be made in our image, according to our likeness; they shall subjugate the fish of the sea and the flyer of the sky and the domestic animal and all the earth and all the creepers that creep on the earth.

Gd created men in His image, in the Image of Gd He created him, male and female He created them.

Hopefully you are over the shock of what naaseh really means.

Next vexing question. What does “in our image, according to our likeness” mean?

Well, it can’t mean physical likeness. Verse 27 specifically says that Gd created both male and female in His own image. Tselem can’t mean a physical image or it would mean that Gd takes on both masculine and feminine physical form and we all know that’s impossible because Gd is incorporeal. So how are Gd and man/woman alike?

The answer comes at the end of the narrative and I will go over it when I get there, but I’ll give you a hint. This narrative is going to establish the existence of Shabbat. How it does that, is the meaning of b’tsalmenu, ki-d’mutenu.

Later, during and after the Babylonian Captivity, up through the time of R. Yochanan, commentaries also used this narrative to contrast the difference between humans and angels. One of the contrasts also speaks to the goal of this narrative, so I’ll talk about  it there. (Resh Lakish, a contemporary of R. Yochanan, said that everything in Judaism about angels, except the bare references in Tannakh, developed in or after the captivity. See Jerusalem Talmud Rosh Hashanah 5a.)

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