Q&A: The Perfection of the Holy One, Blessed be He
The Perfection of the Holy One, Blessed be He
Question
Hello and blessings, Rabbi,
The Rabbi often cites Rabbi Kook, that perfection-development is itself perfection, and therefore the Holy One, Blessed be He, created the world in order to be perfected through us…
1. According to this, it comes out that before He created the world He was not perfect. Can one say such a thing?
2. Assuming that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is “above time,” or at least prior to creation, I find the concept of perfection-development a bit difficult. How can one become perfected if there is no time? That is, at time x you are one thing, and there is no y in order to be more complete…
Does this really answer question 1? Was He in fact perfect without time? If so, then He was not lacking anything, so why did He need to create us?…
Thanks in advance
Answer
- First of all, yes. What’s the problem with saying that? But there is no need for that, since His perfection is that He can make someone else become perfected on His behalf, and He always had that ability. Put differently: His perfection is not measured at each moment separately, but across His entire “world-line” (that is, across the whole time axis).
- I do not see any reason that time must be a condition for perfection-development. We look at everything in terms of time and space, and therefore for us perfection-development, and changes in general, are described along the time axis. But there is no necessity that they cannot exist in the absence of time.