which says, "This is the book of the generations of man;
in the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him."(990)
The godlikeness of man develops more and more through the evolution of the
human race. This is the basic force for all human love and all human
worth.

2. This social bond existing between the individual and the race imposes
upon him in accordance with his occupation certain duties in the same
degree as it confers benefits. Ben Zoma, a colleague of Ben Azzai,
expressed this as follows: When he saw great crowds of people together, he
exclaimed, "Praised be Thou who hast created all these to serve me." In
explanation of this blessing he said, "How hard the first man in his
loneliness must have toiled, until he could eat a morsel of bread or wear
a garment, but I find everything prepared. The various workmen, from the
farmer to the miller and the baker, from the weaver to the tailor, all
labor for me. Can I then be ungrateful and be oblivious of my duty?"(991)
In the same sense he interprets the last verse in Koheleth, "This is the
end of the matter; fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the
whole duty of man." That is to say, all mankind toils for him who does so.
Thus does human life rest upon a reciprocal relation, upon mutual
duty.(992)

3. Man is a social being who must strike root in many spheres of life in
order that the variegated blossoms and fruits of his spiritual and
emotional nature may sprout forth. The more richly the communal life is
specialized into professions and occupations, the more does the province
of the individual expand, and the more difficult it is for him to attain
perfection on all sides. According to his faculties and predisposition he
must always develop one or the other side of human endeavor and pursue now
the beautiful, now the good, now the true and now the useful, if as the
image of God he is to emulate the Ideal of all existence, the Pattern of
all creation. Consequently he may reflect some radiance of the divine
glory in his character and achievements, whether as moral hero, as sage
and thinker, as statesman and battler for freedom, as artist, or as the
discoverer of new forces and new worlds; and yet the full splendor of
God's greatness is mirrored only by mankind as a whole through its
ceaseless common action and interaction. Therefore Judaism deprecates
every attempt to present a single individual, be he ever so noble or wise,
as the ideal of