GEN534 The foundation for loving your fellow man is in the pasuk [Scriptural verse - AJL] that when describing the generations of the human race it is written [this verse]. Ben Azzai said that this is even a greater principle than that of loving your fellow Jew.  Talmud, Yerushalmi 9:4 (sic)  Some explain that Ben Azzai said this is even a greater principle because it includes non-Jews as well (although you do not have to love them like yourself). The extent to which a non-Jew is created in the Image of God is the subject of much debate … [See Mishnah in Avos 3:14 Rabbi Akiva said the human being is dear because he was created in the Image (of God) … Yisrael is especially dear because they are called children of God … Tosafos Yom Tov understood from Rashi’s commentary that a non-Jew is created in the Image of God. He added that since they do not keep their seven commandments, they are not considered created in the Image of God, but in “The Image.” Maharal of Prague (who was the mentor of Tosafos Yom Tov) writes (in Netzach Yisrael ch. 11; Gevuros 67; Be’er HaGolah 6; Ner Mitzvah 10b) that the Image of God in which the non-Jew is created is overtaken by the physical body of the person, but that of the Jew remains spiritual. On the other hand, in the Zohar (3:104b) it says that a non-Jews is not created in the Image of God, and this opinion is also cited in Midrash Shmuel on Avos (3:14). Midrash Shnuel also cites R’ Chaim Vital that only the very righteous non-Jews are created in the Image of God. ] CASTLE 1066-7