Does the Physical World Take Space Away from God? A Deep Jewish Perspective

Avi asks: "Hello. There’s something I’ve never been able to understand: we know that God is everywhere, He is infinite — so how can material reality exist at all? Doesn’t the physical world, in some sense, take up ‘space’ from God?”

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Hello Avi, and thank you for your thoughtful question.

You’ve asked something very deep. Anyone who truly understands the answer will greatly strengthen their faith.

The Zohar states: “Leit atar panui minei” (Tikkunei Zohar 122b)—“There is no place empty of Him.” No part of existence is devoid of God’s presence. The Sages compared it to the soul: “Just as the Holy One fills the whole world, so the soul fills the whole body. Just as the Holy One sees but is unseen, so too the soul sees but is unseen. Just as the Holy One sustains the entire world, so the soul sustains the body” (Berachot 10a).

Just as the soul, invisible yet real, fills and gives life to the body, so too God fills all of creation and sustains it. There is nowhere He is absent.

The prophet Yirmiyahu writes: “If a man hides in secret places, do I not see him? — declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth?” (Yirmiyahu 23:24). The verse doesn’t deny the existence of heaven and earth; it teaches that God fills them. As the Malbim explains, there is no distance or partition that blocks Him — His glory and providence are everywhere.

The verse “The whole earth is full of His glory” (Yeshayahu 6:3) teaches that although God is utterly transcendent and holy, His presence fills even the lowest realms. Nothing is outside His reach.

You asked how matter can exist, and if it “takes away space” from God. The answer is that matter and spirit are not competing realities. Think of unseen forces in our world such as radio waves, cosmic radiation, or gravity. They permeate all space, even through solid walls, yet they are not “in competition” with matter.

So too, spirit and matter belong to entirely different categories. Matter is bound by space and time; spirit is not. Therefore, finite physical existence does not conflict with the infinite. This is why one of the Rambam's (Maimonides) 13 Principles of Faith states: “God is not a body, nor do physical concepts apply to Him.”

A common mistake is to imagine God as some kind of vast energy or light filling the universe. That still makes Him into a “thing,” subject to size and location — essentially reducing Him to a physical concept. That’s idolatry of the imagination.

It’s misleading to imagine God like air filling lungs, or a giant being containing us. These are flawed metaphors because God is not “big.” He transcends size, space, and time entirely. He is not measured in “more” or “less.”

To grasp the difference, consider sound and color: a green room doesn’t prevent sound waves from filling it. They operate on different dimensions. Similarly, though even more profoundly, God’s presence does not clash with physical reality.

In truth, God is not large or small, heavy or light, bound or moving. He simply is. He is absolute unity, unchanged by time or creation. Before the world was created He was one, and after creation He remains the same. The best way to avoid mistakes is not to try imagining Him at all. We know Him through reason, which testifies to His existence, and through the heart, which feels love and awe for Him.

Rambam provides a useful analogy: God is like a mathematical truth. “2+2=4” is true whether or not any objects exist. Logic itself does not occupy space, yet it governs all space. So too, God is the eternal truth that underlies all existence. He is the necessary existence — everything else is merely possible.

This is why the Rambam opens his Mishneh Torah with: “The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a First Being, who brings into existence all that exists… All that exists, heaven and earth and what is between them, exists only through the reality of His existence. He alone is truth; none other has truth like His.” (Yesodei HaTorah 1:1–3)

Creation adds nothing to God. The universe existing or not existing makes no difference to His essence. As we recite each morning: “You are One before the world was created, and You are One since the world was created.”

Matter does not “take away space” from God. Rather, matter itself exists only because He wills it to, and He remains infinite, unbounded, unchanged.