DAVID BIRNBAUM METAPHYSICS
DAVID BIRNBAUM PHILOSOPHY
Rav Chaim of Volozhin*a (b.1749, Volozhin, Belarus;
d. 1821, Volozhin, Belarus) elucidates Hashem (the Divine) as filling – and surrounding – all worlds.
“It says in many places in the Zohar that ‘Hashem fills all worlds’ and ‘surrounds all worlds.’ This means that from Hashem’s perspective, He fills all worlds, and we, from our Torah-oriented vantage point, see Hashem as surrounding all worlds. The meaning of the concept of ‘Hashem filling all worlds’ is concealed from us.
The truth is that from Hashem’s perspective, even after creating the world, He fills all the worlds and all existence; literally, ‘There is nothing else beside Him’ (Devarim 4:35).”
Meaning, as per Summa, the Divine is not “over there” and we are “over here”; Rather, the Divine suffuses all. And, parallel to our metaphysics, wherein Quest for Potential∞ is the core of the Divine, and the Divine drives the cosmos….
*a Rav Chaim of Volozhin, Nefesh Hachaim, The Judaica Press, Inc. Brooklyn, NY,
© 2009, p. 112