Derech Hashem - The Creator

~ Torah Parallels: Derech Hashem ~
The Creator
By: Daniel Listhaus

Section 1 Chapter 1 

    One of the ikrei ha'emuna (fundamentals to Jewish belief) is of course that there is a first Being  who has no beginning or end, who brought all things into existance and continues to sustain them. This Being is the Creator of the world - Hashem our G-d. 

     It is a human limitation that we cannot fully understand Hashem's true nature. As people we were not created with the capacity to fully comprehend Hashem's ways and therefore, by definition, Hashem does not expect to. However, what we do know as part of our mesorah (tradition) starting from the avos and solidified at Har Sinai when the whole nation witnessed first hand and passed down from generation to generation until today, that Hashem is perfect in the true sense of the word. Hashem's perfection is not a combination of perfections in carious areas or traits, as is the way we would tend to think about perfection. Rather, Hashem's perfection is inherently perfect in every possible way. 

    The Ramchal writes that although we could sense Hashem's perfection and awesomeness by merely looking at the intricate world around us that He created, more fundamentally we should understand the values and yesodos that have been passed down through generations. In summary, the Derech Hashem lists six basic principles to bear in mind as part of our responsibility in understanding Hashem based on our mesorah:

 1. The fact of His existence

  • We believe that Hashem is beyond time and who is ever-present and ever-existing historically, presently, and in the future. He brought everything into existence and continues to sustain His creations.  

2. His perfection

  • Hashem's perfection is different in the way that we think about perfection. He is the ultimate perfection and by definition devoid of any conceivable deficiency. 

3. The necessity of His existence

  • Hashem's existence is absolutely imperative and it is fundamentally impossible that He should cease to exist. 

4. His absolute independence

  • Hashem's existence is fundamentally not dependent on anything else at all. Rather, all of existence is dependent on Him. 

5. His simplicity

  • Hashem's existence is "simple" so to speak in that there is no structure, or combination of qualities in Hashem in the way that we think about people. For example, the human mind has many different faculties each one its own domain and maintains its own level of influence. With Hashem, it is not the case that His traits, so to speak, are different faculties. Rather the nature of His Oneness is such that it encompasses perfection intrinsically.

6. His unity

  • Only One Being could exist with complete perfection and have all other Creations depend on Him. This is Hashem - complete perfection, One Being who Created everything else, and Whose creations all depend on Him to continue to will them into existence on a consistent basis otherwise they would utterly vanish as they would cease to exist without Hashem's proactive will for them to remain. 
    These six basic concepts and themes of understanding Hashem a little bit within our limits as our mesorah directs us to pass along from generation to generation are reflected in the Rambam's 13 ikrei ha'emunah as well as mirrored in the tefillah of "Yigdal". These concepts are core to our emunah and bitachon in Hashem that we share as a nation. 

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