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Rabbi Dan Ornstein: A New Internet Idea: Google Divine Images

Below is my imaginary letter to Sergei Brin, the co-founder and owner of Google.

Dear Mr. Brin:

    As an avid consumer of Google’s search engine services, I thank you for creating this enormously powerful information tool.  Your invention is an outstanding example of your passionate commitment to unfettered access to information in the pursuit of strengthening international democratic freedoms.  As a Jewish man whose family left the former Soviet Union to seek those freedoms, you know better than most people how they foster and protect human dignity. 

     It is the protection of human dignity that moves me to write to you.  The Hebrew Bible teaches that God created human beings in the divine image and likeness.  This idea is a foundation of our most cherished beliefs concerning human freedom and equality because it posits that every person is a reflection of God and therefore deserving of dignified treatment.  It is so important in Jewish ethics that one ancient sage famously asserted that it is the most important principle of Judaism.  Another famous Jewish teaching explained it by contrasting God’s creation of human beings with a coin maker stamping coins.  The latter can make many silver dollars but they will look exactly the same.  When God, the ultimate Coin Maker “stamps” human beings, each of us looks different from the other, a powerful way of expressing how miraculous human uniqueness and diversity are. This coin making concept has ancient roots in the practices of near eastern monarchs who would stamp official documents with their royal seals - their images - that identified them.  Every person is like a royal seal representing God’s presence on earth. 

This concept steadfastly holds that human beings have unconditional worth and a right to each other’s respect.  Google already plays a role in fostering that respect by fostering human freedom.  I suggest another role for it to play in this regard.  My searches on  Google Images using the key words “divine image” result mostly in pictures of Jesus, angels in clouds, or  images of the comedian and drag queen, Divine.   Why not create Google Divine Images, a search engine devoted entirely to honoring humanity by presenting the portraits and stories of individual human beings, in order to highlight their suffering, struggles and successes? 

  Imagine encouraging Google users throughout the planet to upload the photos, names and brief histories of men, women and children hiding behind the numbing, faceless statistics of populations brutalized or destroyed by racism, misogyny, and political repression.  They could also highlight individuals in the tiniest corners of the world, whose decency and kindness make a difference to even one other human being.  Flag, categorize, and archive every uploaded photo and story in order to create a massive “divine image” database.  Add a link to Google Divine Images on the Google applications section at the top of every Gmail page.  As I browse, I would be able to look up and learn about people listed by country, conflict, and compassionate or courageous types of behavior.  Judaism teaches that the divine image is enhanced or damaged whenever any person’s life is enhanced or damaged.  Each image and story would stand as tribute or as terrifying testimony to that teaching. 

   The great scholar and social activist, Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote that “The mark of Cain in the face of man has come to overshadow the likeness of God.”  Your company’s motto is “Don’t be evil.”  Human evil is the toxic descendant of the world’s first act of brutality, when Cain murdered his brother, Abel, thus permanently damaging God’s image and likeness.  Mr. Brin, whether or not you accept my proposal and whatever you believe about God, I challenge you and others with your level of immense power and influence to  never stop helping to restore that image and likeness.  No less than human survival depends upon it. 

Dan Ornstein is rabbi at Congregation Ohav Shalom and a writer living in Albany, NY.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

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