(Lat. imitatio Dei). A theological doctrine positing an obligation for man to emulate God's (moral) behavior. Central to Jewish thought, the doctrine receives its fullest development in rabbinic and subsequent literature, but its roots are clearly biblical, presuming man's creation in the image of God (Gen. 1:26, 27). The notion of imitation of God is suggested also in the narrative of Abraham: "For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice" (Gen. 18:19). Here, "the way of the Lord" is identified with moral behavior, and the "way" prescribed for man is not only that in which God wishes him to walk but the way in which God Himself, as it were, walks.
Subsequently, the Pentateuch commands man to "be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2), and "...to walk in His ways" (Deut. 11:22, 28:9). The latter was taken by the medieval codifiers to mean that man is required to "emulate God and His beneficent and righteous ways to the best of his ability," and this was reckoned by them as one of the 613
The doctrine of imitatio Dei has occupied Jewish thinkers in all generations. It was elaborated on in the writings of the 16th-century kabbalists, and in more recent generations in Ḥasidic writings and those of the Musar movement. The rabbis of the Talmud, as well as subsequent writers, saw the ability and the obligation to emulate God as a unique privilege: "Beloved is man who was created in the image of God, but it was a special act of love that made it known to him" (Avot 3:14). The contemporary thinker Martin Buber (Israel and the World) has remarked regarding this passage: "The fact that it has been revealed to us that we are made in His image gives us the incentive to unfold the image and in so doing to imitate God," indicating his belief in the relevance of imitatio Dei for modern man (see also Ethics and Holiness).
