GEN527 In [this and subsequent verses] we read, “This is the book of the generations of Adam. – When God created man, God made him in the likeness of God; male and female God created them. And when they were created, God blessed them and called them ‘Adam.’ – When Adam had lived 130 years, he begot a son in his likeness after his image, and he named him Seth.”  From this passage it would appear that that Adam was created in the image and likeness of God, whereas Adam’s progeny are created in the image and likeness of Adam.  Indeed, this view is found in the Mishnah: “If a person strikes many coins from one mold, they all resemble one another, but the Supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, fashioned every human being in the stamp of the first human being [i.e., Adam], and not one resembles another” Mishnah, Sanhedrin, chap. 4, sec. 5.  Consequently, Adam’s nature has direct relevance to our understanding of human nature.  In a number of texts, Adam is described as a Golem.  In the Gemara’s explication of the just cited mishanic text, an “hour-by-hour” account of God’s creation of Adam on the six day of creation is provided [Sanhedrin 38b]. … In various midrashic variants of this text, the sequence is reported differently [Leviticus Rabbah, chap 29, sec. 1; see textual variants, e.g. Midrash Tehillim, chap. 92 sec. 3, 202; see also Ginzberg 1955, 5:79]  … In this midrashic version unlike the Talmudic version, the Golem already has a human form—Adam’s form. The Golem is not a formless mass, but a manikin; human in shape but not in essence.  Thus, this text describes the state of “Golem” as soulless, but with human form.  The term Golem means “unformed mass.” A form of the world Golem appears only once in the Bible (Psalms 139:16): “Your eyes saw my unformed mass [galmi], it was all recorded in Your book. The following midrash interprets this verse as Adam saying to God: Your eyes saw my Golem, that is God saw Adam as a Golem: [Genesis Rabbah, chap 24, sec. 2; cf. Exodus Rabbah, chap. 40, sec 3, Mishrash Tehillim, ch. 139, sec. 6, 265b).  This midrash tells us that humans are not only the descendants of Adam but of a Golem as well.  Perhaps, as the biblical verse indicates (Ps. 139:16), God saw Adam as Golem.  In other words, God sees Adam—the human being—as essentially a Golem, who becomes human only when realizing his or her potential, which is symbolized in the text as the potential offspring of Adam-Golem.  Otherwise, why would God show Adam his potential while still in golemic form rather than in his completed form?  The moral challenge to each human being is to emerge from the golemic state to attain fulfilled human status as a being in the image of God.  The task is to evolve the self from the primitive status of Golem to the actualized human status of intellectual discernment and moral rectitude (see, e.g., Maimonides Commentary on the Mishnah on Pirkei Avot chap. 5, sec. 6).  As Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk said, “Judah Loew created a Golem, and this was a great wonder. But how much more wonderful it is to transform a person of flesh and blood into a Hasid [a pious person]?” (see Buber 1948, 2:285; Idel 1990, 281). SHER20C 62-3