scholar Maimonides who argues that it is consciousness and the ability to speak which is the "image of God;" both faculties which differentiate mankind from animals, and allow man to grasp abstract concepts and ideas that are not merely instinctual. Rabbinic interpretation of the substantive view Furthermore, rabbinic Midrash focuses on the function of image of God in kingship language. While a monarch is cast in the image or likeness of God to differentiate him ontologically from other mortals, Torah's B'reishit portrays the image as democratic: every human is cast in God's image and likeness. This leveling effectively embraces the substantive view and likens humankind to the earthly presence of God. Yet this immanent presence enjoys the ambiguity of midrashim; it is never outrightly characterized as "Godlike," as in ontologically equivalent to God, or merely "Godly," as in striving towards ontological equivalency. The rabbinic substantive view does not operate out of the framework of original sin. In fact, the account of Adam and Eve disobeying God's mandate is neither expressly rendered as "sin" in B'reishit, nor anywhere else in Torah for that matter. It is instead likened to a "painful but necessary graduation from the innocence of childhood to the problem-laden world of living as morally responsible adults." That God fashions garments for Adam and Eve out of skins (Gen 3:21), is cited as proof of God's quickly fading anger. Midrashim, however, finds common ground with the Thomist view of humanity's response to the image of God in the stories of Cain and Abel filtered through the, "Book of Genealogies" (Gen 5:1-6:8). Insofar as the image and likeness of God is transmitted through the act of procreation, Cain and Abel provide examples of what constitutes adequate and inadequate response to the image, and how that image either becomes fully actualized or utterly forsaken. The murder of Cain is cast as preempting the perpetuation of the image through Abel's potential descendants. This idea may be likened to the Christian idea of "original sin" in that one's transgression is seen to have grave unintended, or unforeseen, repercussions. Midrashim interprets Gen 4:10 as Abel's blood crying out not only to God, but also "against" Cain, which lays the onus squarely on Adam's firstborn. Relational The relational view argues that one must be in a relationship with God in order to possess the 'image' of God. Those who hold to the relational image agree