Not long ago I was accosted by an enthusiastic panentheist, who accused me of seeking to minimise and limit God. Surely, he argued, any supposition that the physical world exists independently of God, inescapably diminishes God’s existence by imagining an area and dimension from which God is absent.
One chapter of Judaism Reclaimed, which relates to parashat Vayishlach, explores the contrasting ways in which Rambam and Kabbalah seek to relate to God. The most fundamental principle, from Rambam’s perspective, is to recognise and internalise the fact that God’s existence must not be related in any way to what we as humans consider to be existence – within fixed dimensions and frameworks of space, time and physicality:
“God is not a body, and that there is absolutely no comparison between Him and any of His creations in any way; that His existence, life and wisdom is of a different form to theirs – and that the difference between Him and them is not just a matter of more and less, but rather one of species of existence… so that no term can be used to describe them both.” [Moreh 1:35]
This latter point concerning terminology is crucial to Rambam. We can only meaningfully apply descriptions and definitions to concepts that our minds are capable of grasping, using descriptive words as way of integrating a new item, idea or concept within the framework of our previous knowledge and experience. Any term that we draw upon in an attempt to portray God is automatically limited by the restrictions of our vocabulary, which in turn is limited by the scope of our knowledge and imagination. The result of this is that any word that we use to describe God inescapably involves us drawing a parallel between God and the physical realm. Yeshayahu Leibowitz makes this point forcefully:
"This is the belief of God qua God, which cannot be conceived in the categories of human thought, as against the belief in God in terms of qualities and functions ascribed to Him, which are of necessity - a necessity following from the limitations of the human mind - corporeal. In our world of human consciousness, there are no qualities or functions which are not derived from the reality known to man. Thus, anyone who ascribes any such qualities to God sinks to the level of idolatry: he worships God in the image of man." [Faith of Maimonides p95
According to this approach, the panentheist’s error lay in his equating God’s mode of existence with that of humans. A human body cannot co-exist in a certain space with other physical matter. This person therefore presumed that the same must be true of God: either God must be present within the physical domain or His existence is necessarily diminished by the existence of a physical world.
Following Rambam’s path, there is a perpetual paradox. On the one hand our religious inclinations push us to want to relate to God – a project which is extremely difficult if we cannot first “make Him real” in our lives. On the other hand there must be a constant awareness that God’s essence is something which we can never, in truth, relate to by drawing on human imagination and experience. It belongs to a sacred higher realm.
This limitation in our ability to truly conceive of God remains the case regardless of whether one is dealing with biblical verses which describe God in physical terms (a subject which dominates the opening section of Moreh Nevuchim) or mystical systems of thought which seek to depict God’s interactions with the physical world. On the subject of the latter, Yeshayahu Leibovitz reports on a fascinating conversation he once had with Rav Kook:
“Rav Kook recognised that the veil separating Kabbalah from idolatry could collapse at any moment … he therefore regarded it as an act of grace on the part of God towards Israel that He gave us Maimonides, who could not be ignored by all these generations during which the Kabbalah spread among the Jews. During this period, Maimonides’ doctrine of the unity of God served as a brake against the deterioration of Kabbalah into idolatry.” [Faith of Maimonides p35]
