Q&A: The Secret of Tzimtzum
The Secret of Tzimtzum
Question
I once saw a lesson of yours in which you presented the two positions on tzimtzum: literal and non-literal. And for each of them there were 2 approaches, and then you said about one position that people tend to think it has no defense, but it actually does, so you chose to defend it. Maybe you remember whether it was a defense of the Gaon's position? Or of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin? Or specifically of the non-literal view? Even though I understand that you don’t agree with the non-literal view.
Answer
What leads to the absurd conception that it is not literal is the limitation this creates on God’s infinity. To that I suggested an answer (following R. S. T. Gefen) by way of comparison to different dimensions: God has a higher dimension, and therefore a universe that exists independently does not diminish Him in the least. Perhaps that is what Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin meant.
Discussion on Answer
According to this, is it possible / permissible to pray to God that you should win the lottery if, say, you bought a lottery ticket and on Tuesday night the drawing took place. On Wednesday you don’t know the result, even though it is already a reality in the world. Can you pray in such a situation that you should win? I think yes, because before the drawing God knew that you would pray, so maybe one can say that from His perspective it’s as if you prayed beforehand.
And of course I forgot to ask—what do you say about that?
There are all kinds of conflations here. First, I don’t see a similar problem with the time axis, so no solution is needed. Second, why is He like something inanimate? Third, what is the problem with how He started the world? Without a time axis there can still be changes; only their description is not on a time axis. You are identifying change with time, but that is a mistake.
As for prayers about the past, I have columns on this that discuss similar proposals raised by philosophers. You can search.
Column 464
I don’t know if “inanimate” was a good example; what I meant was more like a picture in relation to a movie or to human beings. That was the closest way I had to explain the conception of if He is outside time but without saying that He is in another / higher dimension.
So how can one understand change without time?
And if we add that God also has no beginning and is not only infinite—would that change anything regarding the dimensions?
As I understand the conception that God is outside the dimension of time—and not just that He foresees the future—it can be explained like this: that He is like one solid block / something inanimate; the whole past, present, and future already exists for Him through the end of all generations. All the options exist [maybe this is where quantum theory comes in]; if you pray then maybe it will happen this way, if not then maybe that way, etc., and for us that doesn’t contradict free choice.
And also, regarding your question what the problem is with how He started the world: when the assumption is that He is outside time, then if now He created it, before that He did not create it, and that seems to show that He is supposedly inside time. And then comes the solution with the option of dimensions, or some other explanation that I’d be happy to hear from you. Like change without any need for time. Because change itself is time: now it is like this, earlier it was like that.
You keep conflating the existence of time with change. Change can also exist without time. Our description of change always includes time because that is our conceptual system. But a being with a different conceptual system could also describe change in a different way. You won’t understand that, because you are limited to a system that uses time.
That’s it. I’ve completely exhausted the matter.
Thank you. That possibility also gives an answer to those who think God is outside time and created time. Because then there’s the difficulty that He would be like something inanimate. And for Him there’s no difference between past, present, and future. So how did He start the world, if for Him there is no before and after? So if He is in another dimension in which there is a time axis, but one different from ours, then from within that He created our dimension and our time axis.