Daily Tanya 22nd Nissan Chapter 42: How Hashem has knowledge of all occurrences

(LY) 22nd Nissan

1. How Hashem has knowledge of all occurrences:

• Sees what eyes cannot see, and hears what ears cannot hear: Now, although G-d does not have the figure of a body [and hence the concept of eyes and ears do not apply to Him in the literal sense], nonetheless, this does not mean that He does not have the ability to see and hear but rather on the contrary, everything is revealed and known before Him in an infinitely greater manner than that which is seen through the eyes and heard through the ear.
• Like one who feels his own body: This knowledge of G-d of everything that happens is similar to a person who knows and feels everything that happens and is experienced within each one of his 248 limbs, such as heat and cold. He is even conscious of the heat being felt by the nails of his feet if they became scathed by a fire. Likewise, he is naturally conscious of the essence and core of his limbs, and everything that affects them he knows and feels in his mind.
• Everything comes from G-d: Similar to this knowledge of the person with his own body, is the knowledge of G-d of anything and everything that happens with his creations, whether of the lower or higher worlds being that they all derive from Him [at each and every moment for their existence], as the verse states “and from You comes everything.” On this it states in the liturgy of the high holidays that “there is no creation that can hide from You.”
• By knowing Himself He knows all others: This follows that which is written in the Rambam and agreed upon by the sages of Kabbalah, that G-d knows all of the creations through the knowledge that He knows of Himself, as everything comes from Him.
• Not a truly symmetric parable: The above parable is only given so human ears can have some understanding of G-d’s knowledge, as in truth there is no symmetry at all between the parable of a person who knows the limbs of his body and the knowledge that G-d has of his creations.
• All three souls of man are affected by occurrences that happen to his limbs: The soul of man, including even his intellectual and G-dly soul, becomes affected by the pain-and-suffering of the physical body. This is due to the fact that these souls are actually invested within the animal soul which in turn is invested in the actual body to give it life.
• G-d is not affected by that which happens to his creations: This is in contrast to G-d, who is not affected, G-d forbid, from any of the occurrences and changes that occur to the world, and not from the world itself, as none of it cause any change to G-d heaven forbid.
• The conclusion that G-d does not change is a faith that doesn’t require philosophical research: To properly understand this matter in one’s mind, the sages of Kabbalah have lengthily discussed this matter in their books. However, in truth all the Jewish people are believers the son of believers who do not need any research philosophy of the intellectual human mind to come to this conclusion, and indeed say every morning in the prayer liturgy that “you G-d are the same after the world’s creation as you were beforehand,” as explained in chapter 20.