Q&A: Perfection and Self-Perfecting
Perfection and Self-Perfecting
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Regarding perfection and self-perfecting, I do not understand why one should assume that the Holy One, blessed be He, has the attribute of self-perfecting.
I understand that there is no contradiction between saying that He is both perfect and also self-perfecting (the relation between a process and changing states), but I still do not understand the basic assumption. As I already wrote: why assume that He perfects Himself (that perfection exists as potential) if He is already perfect?
Answer
I am also not sure that this is necessary. The assumption is that every perfection that exists in us must also exist in Him, and must appear there in perfect form. But of course one could argue that since He is perfect, self-perfecting is not a perfection from His perspective, and therefore there is no difficulty in saying that He does not perfect Himself.
Indeed, it should be noted that even if this is not a perfection from His perspective, there is another assumption that could also lead to the conclusion that He must self-perfect: everything that exists in us and in the world has its root in Him. And if we perfect ourselves, then He too should be endowed with this attribute. In my article on Zeno's Arrow I explained that this exists in Him potentially and is actualized through us. That answer seems correct to me in itself, even if the difficulty that led Rabbi Kook to it is not really difficult.