G-d who is the Great King that is Holy on heaven and earth.”
Meaning that since He is holy and separate, and He is “Soveiv Kol Almin,” therefore, He is literally the same on the earth below as on the heavens Above, since He is not limited to the parameters of the worlds, and the worlds do not affect any change in Him, G-d forbid. So, just as before the world was created, there was no change in Him [since the worlds did not even exist yet], so too, now, after the creation of worlds, they do not change Him or His Unity, at all.
On this level, we cannot have “knowledge” and perception, since no mind can grasp or understand how it is possible that there is no change to Hashem, at all, that results from creating and giving life to the worlds. Rather, this is “belief,” to believe that Hashem is not limited to the parameters of the worlds, and that to Hashem “darkness and light are the same.” (Tehillim 139:12)
According to the rules of nature in our world, when someone makes something, he is affected by the process. It is not possible for any created being to be truly involved in something and not be affected or changed by it at all. Yet, Hashem is involved in creating and giving life to the worlds, but, at the same time He is not changed or affected at all from this process. This is because He exists outside of all of the laws of nature and logic that He created, and therefore, He does not need to be affected by anything if He doesn’t want to be. This type of existence is not something that we can understand or even imagine.
Since our awareness of this level of Hashem that is not changed at all by creating worlds is not something that we can directly understand, we refer to it as “belief/faith” instead of as “knowledge.”
Summary of Chapter 2:
To understand the difference between the mitzvah of “knowing about Hashem” and the mitzvah of “belief in Hashem,” we need to explain two levels of Hashem's expressions:
One level is called “Memalei Kol Almin-permeating all worlds,” and describes how Hashem “limits” Himself in order to create, give life to, and interact with the created beings. At this level of expression, Hashem's lifeforce and Providence extend to every creature in a palpable manner, so that each can clearly recognize and feel Hashem’s energizing and enlivening Presence in the world. This is similar to how the soul gives life to the body. Just as we know and feel that we have a soul that gives life to our body even though we cannot physically see it, so too, we know and feel that Hashem gives life to the world, including us, even though we do not physically see Him enlivening us.
The second level is called “Soveiv Kol Almin-encompassing all worlds,” and it reflects the true, infinite “nature,” as it were, of Hashem, namely, that He is not limited to any of the confinements of any of the worlds. Even though Hashem is creating the worlds, this process does not effect any change in Him or in His unity at all. This is because all worlds are equally encompassed in Him, and relative to Him, they have no significance, whatsoever. Even though He is present in our world and in all worlds, He is not limited, nor affected, by any of them at all, since He exists outside of the laws of nature. He is not defined by any laws or systems that He created. Since this type of existence is something beyond the possible conception of created beings, our awareness of this level of Hashem is called “belief/faith,” since we cannot relate to it on our world.
