In answer, he explains that the commandment, “Know... that G-d is the L-rd,” does not only mean that there is no other deity, Heaven forbid, but that there is no existence other than G-d. “Everything is entirely batel (“nullified”) in relation to Him.”
The reason why the existence of everything is utterly batel in relation to G-d is that every aspect of creation is exactly that – something that was brought into being from absolute nothingness and not from a pre-existing entity or potential. Accordingly, created beings continuously require the power of their Creator for their existence to endure. If the power of the Creator would withdraw from a created being even for a moment, as a spontaneous and inevitable consequence, the created being would immediately become “void and absolute nothingness, exactly as before the six days of creation.”
Based on the above, we can also understand why the verse mentions “upon (in) the earth below” separately. By doing so, it clarifies that “even the material earth, which appears... to be a genuine entity, is void and absolute nothingness in relation to the Holy One, blessed be He.”
However, there is a point that appears to require further clarification: True, the implication of the statement, “in the earth below, there is nothing else” – that “even the material earth, which appears... to be a genuine entity is void and absolute nothingness” – runs contrary to our senses. For that reason, the Torah must include a separate mandate, “Take it to your heart,” meaning that this understanding should permeate a person’s heart. Nevertheless, the fact that the verse begins with the command “Know” indicates that not only does taking to heart that “G-d is the L-rd” “in the earth below” require a separate mandate, but that the intellectual appreciation of this concept also necessitates a distinct dictate.
For this, further explanation is necessary. Seemingly, the intellectual underpinning for the concept that “there is nothing else” – that there is no existence outside of G-d because “everything is entirely batel in relation to Him” – dictates that the concept of “there is nothing else” applies equally to all created beings, without any distinction at all, regardless, whether they are part of “the hosts of heaven” or “the hosts of earth.” Every being created from absolute nothingness must have “the activating force of the Creator continuously present within the created entity to give it life and [continued] existence.”
How then can a distinction be made between “the heavens above” and “the earth below” with regard to the charge “Know,” which commands the intellectual comprehension that “there is nothing else”?
Why Differentiate Between Heaven and Earth?
There is further proof that the distinction the verse makes between “the heavens above” and “the earth below” is not only to clarify a mistake that could be made by man, a created being. In other words, it is not only that – because he lives on earth, in a material world – the entities in this world appear to man as having genuine existence and, therefore, he must be cautioned against viewing them as separate from G-d. Rather, the distinction between “heaven” and “earth” has a place in logic and thus relates to the command, “Know.”
In Tanya, Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah, the Alter Rebbe discusses the logic, compelling us to say that the existence of the created beings must continually be maintained by G-d’s creative power. He cites the Baal Shem Tov’s interpretation of the verse, “G-d, Your word stands in the heavens for all time” – that “Your words, ‘May there be a sky in the midst of the waters...’ – these words and these letters are standing and enduring for all time in the midst of the sky and the heavens... to provide them with vitality.”
The Alter Rebbe proceeds to state that this concept is not only relevant regarding the heavens. Rather, the entire existence of “all the created beings in all the worlds, the lofty [spiritual] worlds and the lower worlds, even this physical earth, including inanimate matter,” is continuously dependent on “the letters of [G-d’s] speech from the Ten Utterances [of Creation] that provide vitality and bring into being inanimate existence, [causing it] to come into being from void and absolute nothingness.”
In Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah, the Alter Rebbe further states that even the created beings that are not mentioned explicitly in the Ten Utterances of Creation receive their life-force from these Ten Utterances as drawn down level by level through the chainlike order of existence (Seder Hahishtalshelus) via the various processes mentioned in that source. Ultimately, the life-force for every created being is “the name to which it is referred in the Holy Tongue,” for that name is “a conduit [which conveys] the vitality that was contracted [and vested] in the letters of this name, which descended in a chainlike order from the Ten Utterances [of Creation].”
Now, this concept is derived from the verse, “G-d, Your word stands in the heavens for all time.” From the fact that the verse distinguishes the heavens from all the other creations, it is understood that the difference between the heavens and the earth is not only from man’s perspective. (Indeed, this verse from Tehillim does not at all mention man’s knowledge or feelings.) Rather, it indicates that also, in truth, there is a difference between the heavens and all other creations in the manner in which G-d’s word is found within them and, for this reason, the verse mentions the heavens specifically. Because of this distinction, there is a novel dimension regarding the expression of G-d’s unity implied by the phrase, “G-d is the L-rd... in the earth below,” in contrast to the expression of His unity as it is manifested “in the heavens above.”
Bringing Existence Into Being So That Man May Know G-d
It is possible to offer the following explanation: The new insight contributed by the Baal Shem Tov does not merely concern the concept as a whole – that the existence of all the created beings is dependent upon G-d’s creative power which continuously brings them into being, provides them with vitality, and maintains their existence – it also involves the specific points previously mentioned:
‘May there be a sky in the midst of the waters...’ – these words and these letters are standing and enduring for all time in the midst of the sky... and they are enclothed within all the heavens.... A similar concept applies regarding all the created beings. Within each one of them “are enclothed the letters of [G-d’s] speech from the Ten Utterances [of Creation].”
The implication is that not only is a created being dependent on G-d’s creative power for its very existence – although afterwards the created being is separate from the creative power that brings it into being and maintains it – but also that G-d’s creative power enclothes itself within the created being, is invested in it, and maintains its existence at all times.
To illustrate this point: The light of the sun that shines forth originates – and is continuously dependent upon – the sun, its source. The proof is that if there is an object intervening between the light and the source of light, the light is immediately nullified. Nevertheless, after the light streams forth from the sun, it is a separate entity from the orb of the sun itself. This is not true regarding the created beings; G-d’s creative force is vested within the created being itself.
This enables us to understand the words “there is nothing else” – that, truly, there is utterly no existence other than G-d. Since G-d’s word is enclothed within the created being, within its own existence, the created being is not at all separate from “G-d’s word.” Indeed, the vitality (and soul) of every individual created being is “the word of G-d” that is vested in it. Consequently, it is understood “that every created being and entity, [in and of itself,] is truly considered as void and absolute nothingness.”
