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When
we try to understand G-d, we face an inherent obstacle
with the very process of knowing. When I attempt to
know anything, I am the subject and the thing that
I seek to know is the object. In addition, there must
be some degree of distance and separation between
the subject and the object. Your eye can see almost
everything, but it cannot see itself. “Knowing” implies
two separate entities: the knower and the known.
However,
you cannot know G-d in this normative way, because
G-d is the source of all knowing. G-d is the source
of all consciousness. Your very ability to think comes
from G-d, who is the source of all thinking. How can
you think about the source of all thinking? How can
your mind hope to comprehend the source and ground
of all minds? Yet if you want to know G-d, then you
must seek the source of all knowing. You must search
for the source of all searching.
This
is why we cannot come to actually know G-d by philosophical
inquiry. The philosopher tries to make G-d into an
object of his mind. He thinks that he is the subject
and that he can understand G-d as the object of his
inquiry. Even if the philosopher comes up with a brilliant
thesis about G-d, he has gained an idea, but he has
lost G-d. G-d is not an idea. G-d is the source of
all ideas.
In
general, you are the knowing subject and everything
else is the object to be known. But with G-d the relationship
is just the opposite. G-d is the subject and you are
the object. G-d is the knower and you are the known.
In
truth, G-d is like the thinker, and the entire universe
is His thought. According to the Kabbalah, creation
is an act of divine thought. We come into existence
through G-d's thinking of us, so to speak. We exist
only as long as G-d continues to think of us. If at
any point G-d forgot us, poof! We would have no existence.
Now
take a moment and create in your mind a woman. Don't
think of someone that you know. Rather, create a totally
new character. Where does that woman exist? In your
mind. Therefore, you are the knowing subject and she
is the known object. Now imagine this woman in your
mind trying to find her creator—you. How is she going
to do that?
How
would this woman who is the object of your mind make
you the object of her mind?
How
could she possibly understand you?
This
is the same problem we have in our search for G-d.
Relative to anything that we seek to understand, we
are the knower and it is the known. But when we turn
our thoughts to G-d, He is the knower and we are the
known. He is the subject and we are the object.
Each
one of us is like a drop in the ocean trying to comprehend
the ocean.
Imagine
a sphere encircling you. If this sphere were to represent
G-d, you would describe yourself as being encompassed
by this embracing reality that is G-d. From your perspective,
what would you see? You and G-d. From G-d's perspective,
what does G-d see? Just G-d.
From
the perspective of the woman you have created in your
mind, there is her and you. From your perspective,
there's just you.
When
something painful happens to you, you may find yourself
accusing G-d: “How could You do this to me?” But from
G-d's perspective, there is just G-d. No perpetrator
and victim. Just G-d. From that perspective, your
accusation appears as ludicrous as your stubbed toe
shouting at you, “What are you doing to me?”
In
the Book of Isaiah, G-d exclaims, “My thoughts are
not your thoughts.” This means that G-d's perspective
is totally different from our human perspective. Just
as a theoretical being who lives in a two-dimensional
reality cannot possibly conceive of the perspective
of three-dimensional beings such as ourselves, so
we cannot possibly conceive of G-d's perspective.
This
essentially is G-d's answer to Job. Job suffers a
series of tragedies: the death of all his children,
illness, and material loss. He tries to fathom why
G-d has done this to him, given that he is a good
person who has only done good. His friends and his
wife offer various perspectives, all of which Job
rejects as lacking the ring of truth. Finally G-d
speaks to Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations
of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements, if you know?” G-d
is telling Job that he simply does not have the cosmic
perspective to understand what happens in this world.
Job is left with not knowing the answer to human suffering,
not because G-d refuses to tell him, but because there
is no way a human being can understand reality from
G-d's perspective, which is ultimate truth.
The
Sages say that when we get to the next world, we are
going to look back at all of human history, and see
everything as perfect. Even the most tragic events
in history will look totally different. This means
that in that future world, without the limitations
of time and space, we will see everything from G-d's
perspective. But now, ensconced in this world of time
and space, that perception is simply inaccessible
to us. Human beings trying to fathom the Divine plan
are like trying to run a Windows 2000 on a 286 computer.
We simply do not have the hardware to understand G-d,
Who is the ultimate all- inclusive reality.
The
answer to all human suffering is:
I
don't know.
Rabbi
David Aaron
Author of Endless Light, Seeing G-d, The Secret Life
of G-d, Inviting G-d In, Living a Joyous Life, and
The G-d Powered Life |
