Every Place is Filled With Him: How Can Matter and Spirit Coexist?

Aviah asks:

"Hello. There is something I have never been able to understand: it is known that Hashem is everywhere, He is infinite, so how does the existence of matter actually come about? I mean, doesn't the world take up some 'space' from Hashem?"

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Hello and blessings to you, Aviah, and thank you for your question.

You've asked a profound question, and understanding its answer greatly strengthens one's faith.

The holy Zohar states: "There is no space devoid of Him" (Tikkunei Zohar 122b). In simple Hebrew: "There is no place void of Him (-Hashem)."

No place in the world is empty of Hashem's presence. The Sages compared this to a soul: "Just as Hashem fills the entire world - so too, a soul fills the entire body. Just as Hashem sees and is not seen - so too, a soul sees and is not seen. Just as Hashem sustains the entire world - so too, a soul sustains the entire body" (Tractate Berakhot 10a).

Just as there is a tangible material body, and the spiritual soul fills it and gives it life, so too, Hashem fills the entire material creation and gives it life, to the point where there is no place where He is not present.

Thus it is said in the Tanakh: "Can a man hide himself in secret places where I shall not see him? says Hashem; Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? says Hashem" (Jeremiah 23:24). This verse does not dismiss the existence of the heavens and the earth, but rather states that Hashem fills them, as explained by the Malbim: "There is nothing that prevents His distance or a dividing partition, as I fill the heavens and the earth, and no place is void of My honor and providence. And nothing is hidden from Me."

In the verse: "The whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3), the Malbim explains: "Though He is supremely holy and exalted, His glory and praise also fill the whole earth, which is the lowest of His creations, for His providence fills everything, with nothing empty from it."

"Filled" means present - existent everywhere without division and interruption.

You asked how matter can exist, perhaps wondering if matter "limits" or takes "space" from Hashem. The answer is: Matter and spirit are not opposing realities.

The most similar analogy within our material reality would be different energies like radio waves or cosmic radiation, which are everywhere and pass through walls and solid objects; another scientific example would be the invisible gravitational force that shapes all matter in the universe, yet is not tangible itself.

Similarly, spirit does not contradict the existence of matter, and matter does not contradict the existence of spirit, as the reason lies in their different essential definitions:

Matter in its definition exists only in place and time, while spirit in its definition does not occupy space and time. Therefore, a finite material reality will not contradict an infinite reality without boundaries. As stated in the third principle of the 13 principles of faith: "That He is not a body, nor can bodily properties grasp Him, and He has no likeness at all."

Some err in imagining Hashem as a kind of abstract energy and think that because they imagine Him without a defined form, they are not corporealizing Him. But they err: Those who imagine Hashem as some kind of air that fills space, or as some kind of light energy that illuminates the entire universe, posit Hashem within the concepts of their world. Unknowingly, they see Hashem as an entity dependent on concepts like size, place, and time, thus erroneously believing that He would have to limit His light or reduce His essence to contain any other matter but Himself. This is a mistake that corporealizes Hashem and sees Him as an entity similar to His creations, sharing with them the concepts of space and time within the same reality.

It is a mistake to try to imagine matter and spirit within any shared picture, like air entering man's lungs, or a small fish living inside a big whale, a mixture of entities entering one reality - all these are misleading imaginary depictions.

The thought that Hashem is a very large and wide entity does not honor Him, but rather corporealizes and limits Him to a human dimension, imagining large and wide entities as more impressive. Even the thought of a formless light spreading in all directions and filling space, galaxies, and stars is still a mistaken conception of a corporeal God filling the universe like gas in a box, Heaven forbid. Such parables should not be taken literally.

To understand the vast difference, one must understand the relation of the world to Hashem (and no, it is not a matter of size).

Spirit and nature are not two similar realities competing for space and time, but two entirely different aspects. As an analogy, it's like color and sound that do not oppose each other. We do not say about a green room that because it is so green, it is impossible to "introduce" sounds into it. So, to differentiate, Hashem fills all His world, and this fact does not contradict the reality of His world.

The divinity is neither large nor small, heavy nor light; it has no weight or volume, color, taste, or smell, and it is not even dependent on concepts like time - movement and change. Hashem is one absolutely in ultimate unity, and there is no change or division in Him.

Just as it would be incorrect to say that Hashem is "very old," rather we know that He is not dependent on time and years, standing eternally unchanged, so too we do not consider Hashem "large" or "small," but as one who is not dependent on place and size, neither full nor deficient in space, not moving from place to place, but present equally as He has always been, a fact that did not change before or after the creation of the material world.

The best way to avoid this mistake is not to try to imagine Him at all. To understand that the human imagination is not a tool for comprehending Him. Hashem is known through the intellect which provides knowledge of His existence, and the heart which provides emotion and love for Him.

His actions testify that He is the Creator and the giver of the Torah, but we must acknowledge the fact that His existence has no boundary or measure that we can envisage with our material imagination.

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Hashem Without Definition

In truth, even analogies like color versus sound are not good enough to illustrate the great difference and distinction between spirit and matter, as they still exist in the same sensory plane, limited to intensity and quantity capable of measurement.

I think that Maimonides (in Guide for the Perplexed, Part I) attempted to illustrate the divinity analogously as a mathematical law, like the law stating that 4+4=8, or the knowledge that "every triangle is composed of three sides," or the true statement "the whole is the sum of its parts" - logical facts which would remain true even if particles or materials or triangles did not exist in the world. After all, we cannot say about logic or mathematics that they exist in any particular place, and yet, these fundamental laws are undeniably true everywhere. Thus, Hashem is described as the truth of reality - a truth whose essence defines the form and logic of the world.

By way of analogy, Hashem is the mathematics/logic of His world, the basic law that determines the shape of all existing things, or in Maimonides' words: Intellect. An intellect whose existence is self-caused: "He is the knower, the known, and the knowledge itself" (Yad HaHazakah, Foundations of the Torah, Chapter 2:10). For this reason, He has no form or type of substantiality, yet He is the principle by which all existing things are created and operate in any possible reality.

It is important to reiterate that even this is merely an analogy. There are worse and better analogies to illustrate the parable, yet they remain within the realm of analogies. In Part I of Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides discussed the "negation of descriptions" of Hashem, rejecting any human attempt to define Him.

Thus Maimonides explained with his golden words:

"The foundation of foundations and pillar of wisdoms is to know that there is a First Existence. He is the source of all existence, and all that exists from heaven and earth and between them exists only from the authenticity of His existence... And not that He needs for all existences, nor does He need for any one of them, blessed is He. Therefore His authenticity is not like the authenticity of any one of them. Thus the prophet says 'And Hashem God is true' (Jeremiah 10:10) - He alone is true, and none other has truth like His truth. And the Torah states 'there is none else, besides Him' (Deuteronomy 4:35), meaning there is no true existence besides Him like Him... He is the God of the universe, Lord of all the earth, and He conducts the sphere with a force without end and purpose" (Yad HaHazakah, Foundations of the Torah, Chapter 1:1).

Hashem is an absolute truth, an eternal and unchanging logic that will continue to exist forever with or without existence. This is a most profound understanding, that Hashem is not an "entity" and not even "existence," because He is not dependent on any real or potential "existence" to exist. He is simply "truth," "necessary existence," being that exists with or without existence around it.

Yet there is no human concept that can define Him, as He exists above and beyond all possible concepts, and at the same time, all concepts are made possible only from His source. Blessed is He is necessary, for He is not dependent on any existence, while all other existence is only possible.

Whoever manages to understand this even in a very partial way will understand why matter, space, and time do not "limit" divinity in any form or manner, and indeed - they are irrelevant to Him whether they exist or not. As we read in the morning prayer after the binding of Isaac: "You are one before You created the world and You are one after You created the world." The world did not change anything in the essence of Hashem.