Adam Created Alone So Each Life Equals a Whole World

"And God created man" (Genesis 1:27). Therefore the man was created alone, to teach you that whoever destroys a single soul of Israel, Scripture accounts it to him as though he destroyed a whole world, and whoever sustains a single soul of Israel, Scripture accounts it to him as though he sustained a whole world. And for the sake of peace among the creatures, so that a person should not say to his fellow, My father is greater than your father; and so that the heretics should not say, There are two powers in heaven. And to declare the greatness of the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He: for a person stamps many coins with a single seal, and they all resemble one another, but the Holy One, blessed be He, stamps every person with the seal of the first man, and not one of them resembles his fellow. Therefore each one is obligated to say, For my sake the world was created. It was taught: The man was created alone for the sake of the righteous, so that they should not say, We are children of the righteous, and the wicked, We are children of the wicked.