Man is beloved because he was created in the image of God. The image of God is the fact that a human being has reason, intellect, and the ability to think things through. Only a human being has that type of logic, and Hashem gave it to the human being out of the love that he has for them. When we say “human being,” of course, we are referring to both Jews and non-Jews, as we will say in the Pasuk (verse) that we are going to quote, in which Hashem tells Noah and his children, from whom the entire world came. So that would include Jews and non-Jews.
And we see here the tremendous amount of love, the even greater amount of love that was shown to mankind because Hashem told them and emphasized to them that they were created in the image of God. The Pasuk is where Hashem tells Noah and his children that they were made in the image of God. Hashem spoke these words and told them that everyone in the world was made. When the giver of a gift tells the person receiving it that he is giving it to them, it is given with even greater chibah, with greater love. If somebody wants another person to know what they did for them, they are trying to create that relationship, trying to create that bond between them. So that is why Hashem told Noah and his children about the gift that he gave them: that they were created.
Chavivin Yisrael. The Jewish people are beloved because they are called the children of Hashem. Chibah yeterah noda'at. And Hashem showed an even greater level of love because he made it known to them that they were his children. Like the Pasuk in Devarim says, “You are the children of Hashem, your God.” Chavivin Yisrael. The Jewish people are beloved because a precious object, the Torah, was given to them. Chibah yeterah noda'at lahem. She-nitan lahem keli chemdah shebo nivra ha'olam. And Hashem showed them even greater love—the Jewish people—because he made it known to them that the object, the special precious object that he gave them, the Torah, was used to create the entire world. If it was not for the Torah, the world would never have come into existence.
We learn this from the Pasuk in Mishlei. She-ne'emar (as it is said): Ki lekach tov natati lakhem, torati al ta'azovu. Hashem says, “I gave you a good teaching.” The word tov is here. Torati al ta'azovu: do not forsake my Torah. The word tov is repeated over and over again throughout the first perek (chapter) of Bereshit, in the creation of the world: Vayar Elohim ki tov. Hashem saw that it was good, over and over again. So we see here that the creation itself, the world, is called tov. And the Torah is called lekach, the lekach tov. So we see from here that the Pasuk where it says lekach tov could be understood as saying that the entire world, which was the tov, the good, was created for the lekach, which is created for the teaching—lekach, the teaching—which is for the sake of Torah.