Sunday, January 14, 2024

Hashem's Perfection

A very popular MO rabbi wrote an article entitled "Why Even God Blew It". To make things worse - a popular "kiruv" website printed the article. 

So I will use this platform to protest against this blasphemy. 

The Rambam says [מו"נ ג' י"ט]:

מושכל ראשון הוא בלא ספק, שהאלוה ית׳ צריך שימצאו לו כל השלמויות, ויורחקו מעליו כל החסרונות. וכמעט שהוא מושכל שהסכלות באי זה דבר שיהיה הוא חסרון, ושהוא ית׳ לא יסבול דבר.

 IT is undoubtedly an innate idea that God must be perfect in every respect and cannot be deficient in anything. It is almost an innate idea that ignorance in anything is a deficiency, and that God can therefore not be ignorant of anything.

The Ramchal writes at the beginning of his sefer דרך השם: 

שלימותו: עוֹד צָרִיךְ שֶׁיֵּדַע, שֶׁהַמָּצוּי הַזֶּה ית"ש, אֵין אֲמִתַּת מְצִיאוּתוֹ מֻשֶּׂגֶת לְזוּלָתוֹ כְּלָל. וְרַק זֶה נוֹדַע בּוֹ, שֶׁהוּא מָצוּי שָׁלֵם בְּכָל מִינֵי שְׁלֵמוֹת, וְלֹא נִמְצָא בּוֹ חִסָּרוֹן כְּלָל. 

His perfection: One must also know that the true understanding of this Being, may His name be blessed, is not grasped at all by anyone besides Him. And we only know this about Him: That he is a perfect Being in every type of perfection and there is no deficiency in Him at all.

The writer of this blasphemy refers to the Medrash that says that Hashem created worlds and destroyed them before creating ours. Now this could mean many things [do a search on the אוצר החכמה and you will find a lot]. But that Chazal are saying that Hashem חס ושלום "blew it" is unthinkable. 

והוא רחום יכפר עוון.