Understanding the concept of infinity in Judaism

For the Jewish people, however, this poses a dilemma: How do we see God, that which we cannot see?

The intersection of sight and sound occurs at Mount Sinai, when Israel “Saw the voices.” This kind of spiritual synesthesia marks the inadequacy of perception to give us a genuine sense of God. But most of us are aware that there is a daily intersection of sight and sound – in the Shema. This prayer, which exhorts us to hear, is the one in which we cover our eyes. A secret in Judaism’s approach is found is the recitation of the Shema. Why do we cover our eyes? Our tradition teaches that it is to avoid distraction and focus at this central time in prayer. Moreover, the Shema is a prayer about listening, and we can listen more intently when not looking; the limitation of one sense often makes others keener. 

However, there is another deep reason whose explanation requires an excursion into philosophy and kabbalah. Maimonides famously explained that we cannot say what God is, only what God is not. At first this may seem nothing more than a language game. However, the difficulty with positive statements is that they are by nature limiting. In attributing anything to God, the Oneness of God is made to seem as though composed of parts. 

Think of it this way: Human beings are indeed pieces – you can talk about someone’s arm or eye or sense of humor; if you removed a part you will still have the person, albeit incomplete. Therefore they are discrete parts, even if they form an organic whole. But God, our tradition teaches, is indivisible, has no parts. God is ONE. We cannot speak of God’s goodness, because that suggests a piece of God that is good, as if one could remove it or add it. But we can speak of God’s not badness, for that is infinite. More than a simple twist of words, a fundamental principle is at play, that of not limiting God.

Now back to vision. When we see something, we see parts. I see a wall, a table, a bookshelf. You cannot see infinity, only things. The only way not to see parts is to see nothing. Why do we cover our eyes during the Shema?

In writing about Kabbalah and the concept of infinity, my late friend, mathematician Amir Aczel, discusses the kabbalistic term for God – Ein Sof (Without End). Remembering Maimonides, this is a most apt designation for God, a negative that implies no parts or limitation. The Shema is the prayer that asks us to focus on God’s oneness. If we had our eyes open, we would see the world of limitation, not the possibility of Ein Sof. Only by closing our eyes and refusing to see a piecemeal world can we begin to touch the idea of Ein Sof. This interpretation is bolstered by a remarkable fact.

The name of God as “Ein Sof” was first used, Aczel points out, by 12th-century kabbalist Isaac the Blind: “It took a blind man to conceive of the idea of an infinite light.” When we put our hands over our eyes during the Shema, we are artificially creating the sightlessness of that great kabbalist, who understood that the visible world can never be the infinite one. 

When we recite the Shema, we stop looking so that we might see.