Panentheism
Hello Rabbi, I remember a week ago you talked about the teachings of Rav Kook and claimed that his perception of God is not fundamentally different from Spinoza’s. (Pantheism vs. Panentheism). Can you explain to me exactly what you meant or direct me to where you wrote about this? And do you actually define Rav Kook’s perception as heresy?
I don’t remember. I’m not well-versed enough in his teachings to determine this. I know that there are interpretations of his teachings that see him as a pantheist (everything is God), and in fact, a continuation of the Hasidic approach that believes that the reduction is not as simple as it is. Others try to explain subtleties in this difference, and thus define panentheism (everything is God) versus pantheism (everything is God). This distinction is not clear to me (and I suspect that it is not clear to those who make it either). If we are part of him or his members, then we have returned to pantheism and the reduction is not as simple as it is. And if the intention is that he acts in us and gives us life or something like that, then I don’t understand what is new in this approach. Perhaps the intention is that his relationship with the world is like that between a soul and a body (like the well-known Gemara in the blessings), it may be different, but in my opinion those who make it will not really stand behind the implications (for example, that he chooses and thinks and not us).
So all of this sounds to me like word games that may reflect different consciousnesses but have no real content.
Why do you think it's the same thing, saying that everything = God is to limit the ’ to what I think and perceive as everything… as opposed to saying “that everything” is in God, which is simply not to limit God within the limitations of my consciousness but to always leave a place within me that remembers that the divine essence is essentially beyond all consciousness and perception.. is this the same thing?
It's the same thing with regard to its connection with us and our existence. We are identical to it, and we have no independent existence. But beyond us there is another component(s) in it.
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