Principles Three and Four

Ask someone, “What do you yearn for?” and you’re unlikely to get a shopping list of mundane wants and material desires. Yearning and longing lie in the domain of the soul.

What does our innermost soul crave? Self-definition, security, connection. A sense of identity and belonging. We long for a place we call “home.” Rabbi Tatz tells us that the feelings of wistfulness and nostalgia evoked by memories of home are rooted in the universal desire of the neshamah to reconnect with its Source. We are terribly homesick for the place where we belong.

In fact, HaMakom, “The Place,” is one of Hashem’s Names. The Gemara explains: “the world is not His place, rather He is the place of the world.” Prior to creation, there was no space — there was only Hashem. The world cannot be described as a place that contains Him. Instead, He is the place, He contains the world.

The place, or habitat, of a living thing does not merely contain its inhabitants; it gives them identity and presence, and it supplies the environment where they can thrive and grow. When we say that Hashem is the Place of the world, we mean that not only did He create the world, but He also supports and sustains it every moment.

No Limits

The fact that the world is not His place also tells us that Hashem has no physical properties. The third principle of the Rambam’s thirteen articles of faith states: “I believe with complete faith that the Creator is not physical, that no physical attributes apply to Him, and that there is nothing that can be compared to Him at all.”

If an entity can be confined in a space, then the entity has parameters of size, mass, and shape. None of these properties apply to the infinite, limitless Creator. As Shlomo Hamelech declared, “Behold, the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain You” (Melachim I; 8:27).

There are many verses cautioning us not to attribute any corporeality — physical components and actions — to Hashem. When Moshe Rabbeinu reviews the experience of Matan Torah with his people, he emphasizes that it’s prohibited to record the event by fashioning any images of Hashem: “Take heed, for you saw no form at all on the day that Hashem spoke to you.” Nor may we attribute any emotion to Him. The verse says, “I, Hashem, do not change” (Malachi 3:6). Accordingly, it’s improper to refer to Him as One Who has variable states of mind, such as “happy,” “angry,” and the like.

Yet many verses do seem to attribute physical elements, corporeal form, and emotions to our Creator: He will take us out of Mitzrayim with a strong hand (Shemos 6: 1); His eyes scrutinize the earth (Zechariah 4:10); He is a “man of war” (Shemos 15:3); the Torah scholar makes Him happy (Avos 6). Our Sages explain that the Torah employs terminology that we can understand. His constant supervision of mankind is more readily understood when we think of “eyes”; the reward that He bestows upon the Torah scholar is compared to the reward a human king would bestow on one who brings him happiness.

Attributing characteristics, or middos, to Hashem seems to imply that He has a particular nature, limiting Him to a certain pattern of behavior. However, what we term the “middos” of Hashem — merciful, patient, and so on — are not innate characteristics; rather, they’re the manifestations of His management of the world.