In the 19th century, Charles Darwin shocked the world with his “theory of evolution.” What bothered many people about his theory at that time was the idea that man descended from apes. To many, Darwin was considered the greatest of heretics, because they said that he had replaced the divine image with a monkey.

These people did not understand the main idea of ​​his theory. The idea of ​​evolution is clearly set out in the Torah: in the story of the Creation of the world. The sequence and development follow an ascending pattern. What was created first is less than what came later. Read the account in the Bible and you will see that plants were created before animals, fish before birds, birds before land animals, animals before man and woman. This order coincides with Darwin’s theory. The only difference between the theory of evolution and the biblical account is the fact that the latter includes in its narrative the Great Architect, God, without whom none of this would have happened.

If apes preceded man, it was because man is a more advanced being. The distance between ape and man is not quantitative but qualitative. And you cannot understand the Jewish conception of the world if you do not accept that not only does God exist but that He placed a part of Himself on earth. Man was created in the “image and likeness of God.” What does this mean? What it definitely does not mean is that we resemble each other physically. God does not have a physical form. “In the image and likeness” does not refer to appearance, but to something more in keeping with His Essence.

We share something with Him that gives us a divine component. For centuries, scholars have discussed what that characteristic is that makes man “similar” to God. Some say it is the human soul, because that mysterious part of our being is something divine, since it makes us immortal. Others say that what we share with Him is His Intelligence reflected in our mind, that unique gift that is our brain. Others dare to say that what makes us similar to God is free will, our freedom to choose and decide our path.

You can choose one or all of the interpretations of our “divine likeness”, this does not change the result, because in the end both conceptions, the evolutionary one and the divine creation one, put man at the top of the scheme. And in this, Darwin coincides with God.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Jewish History and Culture by Rabbi Benjamin Blech