Q&A: Perfection
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Perfection
Question
Can the Rabbi give a good definition of God’s desire to create the world?
After all, if He is perfect, He should lack nothing at all (for example, a kingdom to rule over).
(As is well known, this is a famous question.)
Answer
I just answered this recently, and I can’t find it now.
Briefly:
- The assumption that before something happens there must be a lack is not necessary.
- The perfection of the Holy One, blessed be He, does not have to be static. It is possible that His perfection is the entire time-axis: a period in which there is no universe, followed by one in which a universe is created. See Orot HaKodesh, vol. 2, by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, where he discusses the problem of perfection and perfecting, and there he explains that the Holy One’s ability to perfect Himself (He is perfect, and therefore cannot perfect Himself) is actualized through us. I also explained this in my article “Zeno’s Arrow”: https://mikyab.net/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A6%D7%95-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%96%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%95%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%93%D7%A8%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%AA1/
Discussion on Answer
That is not at all necessary. But either way: if there was no time, then the question is void from the outset.
How can one say that His perfection extends along a time-axis, before the universe and after it, if before the universe the very concept of time did not yet exist?