extract from Book I Foreword
Published on 28 Dec 2008 at 11:30 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Uncategorized.
* Book I (1988) of Summa Metaphysica
“Birnbaum’s proposed solution to the question of divine origins, to the mystery of the kabbalists’ En Sof (the infinite theistic principle giving rise to the God of Israel) is that “Holy Potential is at the epicenter of the Divine,†that God is, by His very nature, potential and possibility, ‘transcending, space, time and cosmos,†and ever-surging towards greater actuality. Birnbaum bases his thesis, in part, on the name by which God first became known to Moses and Israel: Eheye Asher Eheyeh, “I-will-be-that-which-I-will be†(Exodus 3:13-14) which he sees as a prooftext for his claim that potential is the holiest state of the Divine. Birnbaum sees the kabbalists’ sefirot as “primal quests for potentiality†which bridge the gap from “emptiness†to “somethingness,†and thereby become the vehicles of creation.â€
| < BACK | NEXT PAGE> |
