Thinking About God
How do we know that God has no body?
In traditional (“pre-Tzfas”) Torah circles, as a rule, we don’t spend a lot of time talking about God. That’s not to say we don’t focus on all the things God does (see: Tehilim), but we do tend to avoid direct descriptions and inquiry.
But sometimes you just can’t avoid it. Take the way the Torah itself (Devarim 4:15) describes the Jews’ experience at the giving of the Torah:
You should guard yourselves carefully, for you did not see any form on the day God spoke to you from the fire at Chorev.
In fact the Rambam, in the third of his 13 principles of faith, quotes this passage as what appears to be his primary source proving that God has no physical form.
One possible objection to that reading of the verse would be that, in theory, the words, at their very plain meaning, are only saying we didn’t see any form. But (again, in theory) there could have been things we weren’t shown. So how is the verse actually a proof for the Rambam’s principle?
But it get’s a bit strange when you consider how God Himself (Bamidbar 12:8) describes the unique prophecy of Moshe:
Face to face I speak with him, in a vision and not a riddle and the form of God he sees…
Granted, this is only referring to Moshe himself and not the Jewish people as a whole. And Rashi here does limit the vision to the “back” of God (whatever that might mean). But there is indisputably a “form” that was visible to Moshe.
How are we to understand that? And what did the Rambam mean by using just this passage as his proof text?
Any thoughts are welcome!
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My understanding of the Rambam is that a shape or form by definition means limitation. Think about it: a body has a place where it begins and ends. If something has any shape, form, image or anything whatsoever it must have a stopping point, i.e., a limitation. In fact, the only way we can conceive of anything is because of its limitation. If everything was blue we wouldn't understand blue, but because there is 'blue' and 'not blue' -e.g. red, we can now understand blue (meaning it's not the 'not blue' that we understand, rather the blue, just we can't get there without the 'not blue'). God doesn't have any limitation so we can never actually understand His essence; we can understand is what He is not. But we will never understand Him because He is beyond limitation and therefore beyond comprehension. Saying God has a body in any conception of body you choose, you are by definition saying that there is comprehensible entity, meaning a limited entity.
The Ramchal also discusses this in Daas Tevunos.
The pesukim in Parshas Vayera strongly suggest God has some sort of body like a man. Pashut pshat Hashem was one of the three men who visited Avrahama, so when he stayed behind, only two malachim continued to Sedom.
Of course, the pesukim in Bereshis and in iyov also suggest Hashem has some sort of form.