Letters April 2015

Question: Can God place part of Himself into the universe, so as Spinoza says, God “is" nature?

Rabbi: Reason cannot reconcile God simultaneously being non-physical and physical. It’s like suggesting black is simultaneously white, or a circle is simultaneously a square, or that I was born yesterday and I was also born tomorrow. As nothing can create itself, everything was created, until we reach back in time to a first cause that “always” existed. For if we do not stop, and rather, suggest there are infinite causes, then the present cannot be reached. And as God created the universe, He and the universe are clearly two distinct entities, and therefore, there is no “part” of God in what He created. He is separate from His creation. For He always existed, and creation did not always exist. Thus, His existence is different than the existence of all else that was not eternal. So He and the universe are two separate entities.