Who, What, Where and When is God?
God: The Transcendent and Immanent
God is easy and simple – utterly uncomplicated in any way. However, our ability to comprehend Him is another matter. Anything we can say about God is more about how we perceive Him than about God himself. This is because God, as we shall see, is entirely transcendental. His essence is utterly beyond all comprehension. In fact, God is indescribable and ultimately unknowable. However, God is also immanent and involved with His creation. From this feature of God we can learn a lot about Him, deriving His desires and values. This is perhaps the most famous example of God’s essence versus our perception of God: Although God is ultimately simple, we perceive Him as both transcendent and immanent. This idea is at the heart of much Torah theology and a good starting point for our discussion.
The Transcendent Aspect of God
The prayer Shema states: “Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, The Lord is one!” This declaration of God’s unity is not merely about the mathematics of faith. It is more correctly understood as a qualitative rather than quantitative idea. God is not simply “one.” Instead he is “oneness,” the ultimate unity. The problem with ultimate one-ness is that its nature precludes two-ness. For that matter, it precludes three-ness, four-ness, or anything-else-ness at all! If that is the case, then how do we exist? The answer is an important concept called tzimtzum: constriction. Before God could create anything at all, He had to create a space in which creation could take place. In order to do so, He “constricted” his presence, creating a space in which the essence of one-ness was diluted enough to allow creation to endure. This empty space is known as the Chalal ha-Penui (or Chalal, for short), the vacated space. Between God’s eternal, unified essence and the Chalal a barrier called the Pargod, the veil, or partition.
The Chalal is the canvas upon which all creation took place. Anything that is not- God exists as a created entity within the Chalal. As God Himself said: “I am God; I make all things.”
This distinct separation between God and His creation yields a number of conclusions about God:
As creator of all things, God must therefore be, in essence, entirely separate from all things. There is nothing in the created world that can represent or approximate Him. As it states in Isaiah: “To whom will you then liken God?” Similarly: “There is none like you among the heavenly powers…” Since God must be distinct from the creation, Judaism and Noahism must reject any concept of pantheism.
Since God created all things, his existence can in no way be predicated upon anything in creation. We cannot therefore define God as love, morality, or any kind ethical force.9 God may have those attributes, but they are not God and vice versa.
Since He created all matter, God must not be made of matter. Similarly, since God created space and time, He cannot exist within space and time.
What emerges from the above is a picture of a God who is entirely transcendent and beyond is creation. The danger of such a conception, however, is the erroneous conclusion that God is absent from His creation. To the contrary - God is intimately involved with His creation.
The Immanent Aspect of God
Tzimtzum does not mean that God totally removed Himself from the Chalal. It only means that he restricted his essence to a degree necessary for creation to endure. Yet, God’s presence still permeates and fills the Chalal.
How do we know this?
In Nechemiah 9:6 we are told:
You have made the heavens… the earth and all that is on it… you give life to them all.
The last clause is in the present tense: God gives life and is continuously giving life. There are many other references to God as the perpetual creator throughout the Tanakh.
Since creation’s continued existence depends constantly upon God’s will, then His will must extend into the Chalal. However, since God is an absolute unity, then his will and his essence must be one in the same. Therefore, God’s essence must extend into the Chalal.
In this sense, God is immanent: He is continuously and intimately involved with His creation. He directs and sustains it, He hears and answers the prayers of His people; He gives it life and deals with it in kindness and justice. We see this on every page of the Tanakh.
The Experience of God vs. the Reality of God
We must be reminded, however, that this is a dual perception of God, and not relevant to God himself. It is a product of the finite mind’s striking against an infinite reality. It is not a perception limited only to humans, however. This dual experience of God is alluded to in the song of the angels in Isaiah 6:3. The angels sing:
Holy, Holy, Holy us the God of hosts, the whole world is filled with his glory.
This verse refers to the immanent experience of God. However, the angels also sing
Blessed is God’s glory from His place.
Here the angels refer to God in the transcendental sense, as occupying a place that is His, only His, and that of none other.
Similarly, we say in the Shema: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Before declaring that God is an unknowable and transcendent unity (“the Lord is One”), we first declare that he is “the Lord our God,” both imminent and ruling.
Furthermore, in every blessing we open with the words: Blessed are you, our God, king of the universe. We declare God as both our God, imminent and close, and as a king who is transcendent and lofty.
The moving prayer Ovinu Malkeinu, recited several times during the year, repeats the refrain Ovinu Malkeinu – Our father, our King!, referring to God as both our imminent father and our transcendent king.
God’s Incorporeality
As mentioned above, since God is the creator of all matter and all space, he cannot be made of matter or subject to space. This fact precludes God having any material manifestation. God himself warns us to never think of him corporeally, saying:
Take heed of yourselves for you saw no matter of form on that day that God spoke to you at Horeb…
Nevertheless, the Torah often speaks of God using anthropomorphism – describing Him as if he had physical qualities. For example, in many places we find reference to the hand of God or the eyes of God. In all such situations the Torah is not telling us that God has a body. Rather, the Torah is borrowing from the language of man in order to express something about His relationship to His creation.
Similarly, when the Torah describes God’s voice, it is referring to a prophetic voice within the mind, but not to an actual divine voice in the sense that we understand voice.
You wonder then why man is described as being created in God’s image if God has no actual “image?”
This is not a description of the physical attributes of man – rather it means that man can affect and interact with the world using many of the same attributes perceived in God. For example, Man and God both share free will and creative ability.
Other Issues
Any descriptor for God must be qualified and considered carefully. For example, God is often referred to as “He,” in the masculine. However, this is merely an effect of the Hebrew language which has no neuter grammatical gender.
In the same vein, even terms that seem accurate must be kept in perspective. For example, God is often described as “eternal.” As apropos as this may appear, it is still a limited description. Not being bound by time, the human concept of “eternity” doesn’t even fit properly. “Eternal” is only the closest term we can use to describe God-in- time.
Overview
Although God is utterly beyond any description, comprehension, or corollary in the created universe, he is nevertheless intimately involved in it.
We see His impact upon reality at every turn, which informs us as to his will and attributes.
Nevertheless, these attributes are only products of our perception of God’s action and not intrinsic to God Himself. We can only understand God’s essence by knowing what it is not. In this sense, Torah theology is called “negative theology.”
Summary of Lesson
God is beyond any words, description, form, or comprehension.
Since God created time, space, and matter, He is not subject to any of them.
Although God is entirely transcendent, he is also completely immanent and involved with the world.
This dual perception of God is only a perception and is not the reality of God. We are limited in our ability to perceive the infinite.
God is incorporeal and without form. Anthropomorphism is used by the Torah, however, to convey by way of allegory God’s attributes in this world.
Any positive description of God is only a description of God’s actions and influence, not of God himself. The essence of God can only be truly communicated by contemplating what God is not.