GEN84 [This verse and Genesis 1:26 are] not so much a metaphysical statement about the nature of the human person as it is a political protest against the very basis of hierarchical, class-or caste-based societies, whether in ancient or modern times.  That is what makes it the most incendiary idea in the Torah.  In some fundamental sense we are all equal in dignity and ultimate worth, for we are all in God’s image regardless of colour, culture, or creed. A similar idea appears later in the Torah, in relation to the Jewish people, when G–d invites them to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. All nations in the ancient world had priests, but none was “a kingdom of priests” Exodus 19:6.  All religions have holy individuals—but none claim that every one of their members is holy. This too took time to materialize. During the entire biblical era there were hierarchies. There were priests and high priest, a holy elite. But after the destruction of the Second Temple, every prayer became a sacrifice, every leader of prayer a priest, and every synagogue a fragment of the Temple.  A profound egalitarianism is at work just below the surface of the Torah, and the rabbis knew and lived it.  SACKS 5-6