Who Created God? Understanding Why the Creator Has No Beginning

"Shalom, I’ve been trying to understand something for a long time and can’t quite grasp it. It’s clear to me that every created thing has a creator (a table has a person who made it, a person has God who created him, and so on). I believe and know with certainty that there is a Creator of the world, and I have no doubt about that. Still, it really interests me to know: It’s clear that God Himself has no creator — otherwise He wouldn’t be the Creator but the created. But how is it possible that He simply exists? Who created Him? How could He exist before everything else? I hope you understand where I’m coming from and can answer my question. Thank you."

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Shalom and blessings,

Your question is fully understood, however, God is not a human being. If God were a human, then your question would be logical: Who created Him? Where did He come from? Surely He could not have always existed.

Those are reasonable questions about any being that has a body — something limited by form, quantity, place, and time. For such beings, it’s natural to ask: Who put them in this place? Who gave them this form?

God has no body, no form, no place, and no time. He is pure reality — the true, infinite existence that stands behind all else. He is not just another creature living within reality; He is the underlying reality itself, the infinite existence sustaining everything.

As the Sages said: “God is the place of the world, but the world is not His place.” God does not live inside the world, but rather, the entire world exists and continues within Him.

You are correct in understanding that only limited things require a limiter. In the same way, only limited things require a beginning (and thus a beginner). Being limited means there must have been something before that imposed those limits.

God, however, is unlimited. For this reason, there is nothing before Him, nothing outside Him, and no one to impose limits on Him. He has always existed as He is, unchanged and outside of time.

God did not “create Himself,” nor did He ever “begin.” There was never a point in time when He came into existence, because He exists beyond time. He always was. This is why He is described as “He was, He is, and He will be.” Without change, without beginning, without end.

Just as God has no end, so too He has no beginning. He doesn’t age, and therefore He was never “born.” His state remains constant, and unchanging, and He is therefore eternal and everlasting.