Q&A: Eternity
Eternity
Question
A- I couldn’t find (after searching) where the discussion is (if there is one) about this: if before the creation of the world there was no concept of time, then how can it make sense to say that the world is not eternal as He is eternal? After all, you can’t say it was created after Him, because there still was no time.
B- And also—or really because of the creation-from-nothing approach—why did He suddenly decide to create the world and not create it earlier? (I couldn’t phrase this properly given that there was no time then, but I hope you understand.) After all, there is no change of will in Him, certainly not when there is no world. (On my previous question about why He decided to give the Torah דווקא at a certain time, you answered me that the Creator understood that now the world was suited for it, but what can we answer here?)
Thank you
Answer
A- Who said it does make sense?
B- That is only if there really was time beforehand. But even if there was, this question has been asked here several times. My answer is that a change of will is not really a change. From the outset, it was so: that He creates the world at the time that is ripe for it, for His own reasons. The divine will is defined across the entire axis of time, not at each point separately. This was His will from the outset: that there be a vacuum, and at some point a universe be created. Beyond that, who told you that a change of will does not apply to Him?
Discussion on Answer
To Moti the Younger,
Your answer (which I won’t presume to say I understood) doesn’t seem to me to fit with Rabbi Michi’s view (not that I said that interests you). I don’t know how well-versed you are in his teachings; I’m familiar only from browsing his site and his debates. Because it seems that he holds that time is not a creation of the Creator, but rather like the laws of logic—which Rabbi Michi holds are not really “laws,” and that the Creator did not invent them, and therefore He too is subject to them.
Interesting point. I really didn’t elaborate on the relation to the Creator on this issue, but in any case, from my perspective the Creator is the DNA code and the cosmic system and the laws of nature.
Time is a creation, and it’s like taking a photo album and turning it into a movie. Someone who has already seen the whole album already knows what will happen at the end of the movie, but within time it still hasn’t gotten there yet. At the singular point, time was created—a creation that allows natural processes to happen—but without time, the world basically always existed and also always did not exist. Even when the world is destroyed and disappears—or more precisely when dark matter grows and the particles decay—time will allow that to happen, but the world will still both be and not be in terms of its essence, without the intervention of time.