[Avodah] Just one Hashem in Heaven

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 03:42:58PM EST, R Shmuel Weidberg wrote Areivim:
: It has always bothered me when we say that Hashem is in heaven,
: because as far as science is concerned up contains outer space. And it
: seems that it is meant literally when we say that Hashem is up,
: because we say that the Shechina does not come below ten tefachim.

: It occurred to me that the current scientific view is that what is
: beyond the limits of the big bang is undefined, and that fits in very
: well with how we say that the word Makom when used as a kinui for
: Hashem means Hashem is the location for the world. Which would mean
: that wherever you are an you point up, and you go beyond the limits of
: sky to the edges of outer space, you are pointing to a place where the
: shechina has more of a presence than it does here.

: I hope that made sense. I am just not sure if there is any point in
: justifying anything with the big bang according to the shitta that
: sheshes yemei bereshis is literal days. So flame away.

(Well, the mod won't let you flame, but polite arguing is okay. Now,
taking off my moderator hat...)

I think that the origin is the broadness of the word shamayim.

The "-ayim" suffix can mean a number of things. A pair, as in "yadayim",
or something that needs measuring rather than counting, like "mayim" and
"chayim". (But not spatial dimensions -- orekh, rochav, qomah... Can't
say why.)

But in the case of shamayim, all derashos about eish+mayim aside, I think
it's sham+ayim, yeilding "thereness". There, as in not here, a place I
am not at. Thus shamayim is a term referring to places I can't reach.

Whether because it's a "place" beyond the physical spatial sense, or a
place I can't reach due to gravity.

Calling Hashem HaMaqom is also "place" beyond the physical spatial sense,
so I'm not fully disagreeing with that part of RSW's post. What I would
disagree with is the notion that it's more of a kinui than sheim havayah
as understood literally as "Cause of Existence".

Rather, maqom, like shamayim, is a broad enough concept to look like a
homonym for at least two smaller ones.

Last, I think the Shechinah is most present in the yeitzer hatov, in
the qol demamah daqa, far more than in the majesty of space. It's one
thing to say that Hashem is Infinitely Large, and associate Him with
the cosmic. It's far more to note that He is also Infinitely Dense, that
Hashem can pay intimate attention to every point in that cosmos. Even to
individual little beings out on a typical planet 2/3 of the way out on
one of the arms of a boring little galaxy among the trillions out there...

That's Kol maqom she'atah motzi Gedulaso shel HQBH, sham atah motzi
anvanuso...

And this is the resolution of the paradox:
    Kevodo Malei olam
    Mesharasav sho'alim zeh lazeh
    "Ayeh *MEQOM* kevodo?"
Didn't we just say His Kavod is everywhere? Yes, but where it is most
tangible is where there is something that can sense that Presence. The
G-d who all through the Hagaddah is repeatedly called "Maqom" is the
G-d who completes Yetzi'as Mitzrayim with "veshakhanti besokham".

So I don't see Maqom as a physical-cosmic thing. I see the name as
referring to His providing potential. And nothing in the cosmos has the
quantity of potential of someone who -- betzelem Elokim -- has bechirah
chafshis.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I hear, then I forget; I see, then I remember;
micha at aishdas.org        I do, then I understand." - Confucius
http://www.aishdas.org   "Hearing doesn't compare to seeing." - Mechilta
Fax: (270) 514-1507      "We will do and we will listen." - Israelites