How Can the Infinite God Care About Our Mitzvos?

Overview: How can God, who is infinite and independently complete, actually care about what we do and the trivial details of the Mitzvos we perform. Does He “want” or “need” our Mitzvos.

A popular question is how it is possible for God—who is essentially and independently complete—to care about a world by first creating it and then continuing to actively care about the actions of its inhabitants. In other words, the very idea of a desire or will is the need in something else to complete one’s greatness. But how can there be anything besides His infinite character that can make Him “more infinite”?

The answer is a long, highly philosophical one that we will address here only briefly. The answer to this question would a question in the reverse: How is it possible to limit God by saying that He cannot have a desire for something?! Jewish philosophy explains that God is omnipotent and nothing stands in His way. Therefore, just as God has a power to be infinite, He also has a power to be finite—in a certain sense—and be satisfied from something external from His infinity.

Note, however, that this idea is not similar to the famous paradox/question whether or not the Creator can create a rock so heavy that He Himself cannot lift it.^[1] For over there the idea is whether God, who is in essence infinite and limitless, can make Himself completely limited in the sense that He can never lift that rock because it will be too heavy for him—even if he’ll switch His mind about having the rock so heavy etc. Hence, the question is whether or not God can do the impossible. It would be similar to the question of if God can create a second God, in which such a case He would be totally non-infinite and would never be able to retract from it.

In our discussion, however, we are discussing whether God can limit Himself in one regard while containing His overall status as infinite, to the point that this limitation isn’t really a limitation because at any point He can retract it, showing that it is only an external limitation, so to speak. So even while He has the will and desire for this outside being of Him (i.e. people to do Mitzvos) to have an effect on Him (i.e. give Him pleasure), He still retains His status as infinite because at any given moment He has the ability to access and tune-in with His infinite aspect and withdraw the entire will and desire. In other words, the very limitation is based off His will and is therefore not an actual, real limitation that He is essentially bound to. It is for this reason that I prefer calling the limitation He imposed on himself a “local” one that is only limiting a specific aspect of Himself.

So does God “want” or “need” our Mitzvos?

Based on the above, it becomes clear that God “wants” our Mitzvos and doesn’t “need” them whatsoever. Needing something shows on an essential dependency on the action needed. But because His very limitation to care about us is in itself dependent on His will of which can technically change if He decides—we therefore must not call it a need.^[2]

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[1] There is no definitive answer to this question. The issue with saying that he cannot would be that one is limiting the all-capable. The issue with saying yes is that one in effect limited God that He cannot lift the rock from henceforward. The question of whether God can care about a world, however, does have a definitive answer and doesn’t encounter this paradox. That is because even once He has the desire to be “happy” from an external being (i.e. the world), it doesn’t have to bind Him essentially to the point that His decision is irreversible. The heavy-rock paradox is questioning whether He can bind Himself to the core to the extent that His self-limitations are irreversible.

[2] Though one can suggest that within the realms of His will, it is considered a “need” for Him. But this wouldn’t reflect the way it is in true reality—which isn’t bound to one specific will of His that there should be a world—as technically there’s the possibility of Him not wanting our world. Hence, the answer to this question would be different simply depending on what angle you look at it.

Footnotes

Turk Hill says:

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Thank you for your essay. I would answer the question of “can G-d create a rock so big that he cannot lift?” with that G-d does not perform useless actions. As for G-d needing our mitzvot, I agree that G-d is limited. He cannot, for example, make a square circle. Or, He cannot become physical. That is an impossibility. He cannot do everything, and that is good. If there were a judge who was limited to only the right decisions, we would surely say he is a perfect judge. Thus I think of G-d as all powerful, and an all powerful being does not need to see people doing mitzvot. Since G-d is perfect, He provided us with the perfect system. Man, not G-d, needs mitzvot because only Torah can be a Divine guide for life.