GEN188 The various manifestations … of God’s image within us give us each divine worth. We have that ultimate source of value regardless of our abilities and disabilities, our wealth or poverty, our personal qualities or defects, or the degree of our usefulness to others. We have divine worth even if we do not think very much of ourselves. The divine worth granted to each of us is a special blessing; we share in no less than the essence of God. It is also the source of many of our responsibilities to ourselves, to others, to our world, and to God. If we indeed know the difference between right and wrong, we have the responsibility to choose the right. If we are to be God’s partners in ongoing active creation, we must act accordingly. This concept has far-reaching implications when applied to the area of intimate relations. The sexual aspects of our being—physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual—are not base or obscene; they are part of the entire human being that God termed “very good” after creating us [this verse]. We must use our sexual faculties, like all other elements of our being, for good purpose, as defined by Jewish law and tradition, to activate their potential for divinity. And we have not only the ability but also the duty to do that. Intimate relations, then, are not seen within Judaism as simply physical release or the product of base, animalistic lust; they are, when carried out in the proper context, no less than an expression of divine image within us. DORFFLOV 76