ain your heaven-born dignity, you will
have dominion over all things; if not, you will descend to the level of
the brute creation."(632)

4. An ancient Mishnah derives a significant lesson from the story of the
creation of man(633): "Both the vegetable and animal worlds were created
in multitudes. Man alone was created as a single individual in order that
he may realize that he constitutes a world in himself, and carries within
him the true value of life. Hence each human being is entitled to say:
'The whole world was created for my sake.' He who saves a single human
life is as one who saves a whole world, and he who destroys a single human
life is as one who destroys a whole world."

5. While it is man's spiritual side which is the image of God, yet he
derives all his powers and faculties from earthly life, just as a tree
draws its strength from the soil in which it is rooted. Judaism does not
consider the soul the exclusive seat of the divine, as opposed to the
body. In fact, Judaism admits no complete dualism of spirit and matter,
however striking some aspects of their contrast may be. The whole human
personality is divine, just so far as it asserts its freedom and molds its
motives toward a divine end. In recognition of this fact Hillel claimed
reverence for the human body as well as mind, comparing it to the homage
rendered to the statue of a king, for man is made in the image of God, the
King of all the world.(634) Thus the Greek idea that man is a _microcosm_,
a world in miniature, reflecting the cosmos on a smaller scale, was
expressed in the Tannaitic schools as well.(635) The stamp of divinity is
borne by man in his entire heaven-aspiring nature, as he strives to
elevate the very realm of the senses into the sphere of morality and
holiness.

6. In this respect the Jewish view parts from that of Plato and the Hindu
philosophers. These divide man into a pure celestial soul and an impure
earthly body and hold that the physical life is tainted by sin, while the
spirit is divine only in so far as it frees itself from its prison house
of flesh. Judaism, on the other hand, emphasizes the unified character of
man, by which he can bend all his faculties and functions to a godlike
mastery over the material world. This appears first in his upright posture
and heavenward glance, which proclaim him master over the whole animal
world cowering before him in lowly dread. His whole bodily structure
corresponds to this, with