Musar untuk Yesaya 40:18

And we also need to understand and know that the Creator, may He be blessed, does not have a body nor physicality, an image, or any appearance, as it is stated, you heard the sound of words but perceived no image; nothing but a voice (Deuteronomy 4:12). And it states, To whom, then, can you liken God, what form compare to Him (Isaiah 40:18). And it likewise states, "To whom, then, can you liken Me, to whom can I be compared," says the Holy One (Isaiah 40:25). And even though we have found many verses in which physical words are written about the Creator, may He be blessed — such as the matter that is stated, The eyes of the Lord are everywhere (Proverbs 15:3); My own hand founded the earth (Isaiah 48:13); under His feet there was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire (Exodus 24:10); written with the finger of God (Exodus 24:10); and many verses like these — they were only written to make people understand what they are able to understand. And about what is similar to this, the sages, may their memory be blessed, have said, "The Torah speaks in the language of people." So it is all appellations and metaphors regarding the Creator. But the central truth is that He is without a body or physical image. And we have been much warned in the Torah to distance ourselves from it, from physicalizing, like the matter that is stated, [So you are to take exceeding care for your selves], for you did not see any image (Deuteronomy 4:15).

It comes out that all of the descriptions mentioned about Him, may He be blessed — eye, ear, foot, hand, and likewise all of them; and also the matter of coupling, hugging, kissing, mother and father, son and daughter, his father-in-law and his mother-in-law, and many things like this -- all of these are holy expressions, the essence of these nouns being about holiness. And afterward, it was borrowed in a descending process until even the physical became called by these words, by way of borrowing [them]. Then it becomes understood that just the opposite, all of the limbs of the parts of the chariot are, in their essence, names about Him, may He be blessed; and that is the Supernal Man. And all of the names of the powers of our limbs are borrowed, and are called this way symbolically for that which is above; just like Reuben the son of Jacob is symbolic, as written by the author of [Shaarei] Orah. And the Holy One, blessed be He, created the earthly man symbolically like the Supernal Man. Given that he is a chariot in his true existence, there are rarified internal and completely spiritual things and concepts, which are the parts of the chariot, from which spread the light and the flow for the preservation of this existing thing, which is modeled after it. And they are called hands, feet, eyes, and ears. It is not that the nature of the [human] hand is like the [true] hand, or the structure of the [human] hand like the [true] hand, God forbid! As it is written, To whom can you liken God, etc. (Isaiah 40:18). And there is no similarity between Him and us at all, from the angle of essence and structure. Indeed, we are fashioned and made in this model to teach that if one merits to purify one of his limbs and to perfect it through the commandments that depend upon it, that limb will be like a model of the chariot and [God’s] glorious throne concerning that supernal internal thing that is called by this name. If it is an eye, then eye; if it is a hand, then hand; if it is a foot, then foot, and likewise the other limbs.

When the Tziyoni in his commentary on Parshat Noach deals with the generation of the Tower of Babel, he discusses the subject of שיעור הקומה at length. Kabbalists interpret Psalms 147,5: גדול אדוננו ורב כח לתבונתו אין מספר, "Great is our Lord and full of power; His wisdom is beyond reckoning." They see in the numerical value of the words ורב כח (236) an allusion to 236 times 10 million פרסאות as the distance spanned by the Celestial Regions. The פרסה equals מילין 4, the מיל equals 2000 cubits. The cubit consists of 6 handbreadths, which in turn consist of 4 זרתות each. The זרת of the Celestial Regions is the distance covered by a person in 500 years' walking, as we know from Isaiah 40,12: ושמים בזרת תכן, He gauged the Heavens with a span. From the above and other slightly divergent commentaries on the same subject it emerges that when we talk about שיעור הקומה we mean the dimension of certain manifestations in the spiritual world. There is general agreement amongst the Kabbalists that all these so-called measurements apply only to Mattatron. Any spiritual force in the Celestial Regions which is on a higher level than Mattatron is beyond the realm of measurement, even symbolically. Concerning more highly placed spiritual beings we apply Isaiah 40,18: "To whom do you want to compare Him (G–d)?" Any Celestial Region beyond the one in which Mattaron functions is "forbidden territory," beyond our right to investigate. This means that the שער, gateway is closed to us. שיעור is thus related to שער. The term שיעור הקומה is a reference to and more precise definition of the 7 emanations which between them executed the בנין, the actualisation of G–d's directives to bring this physical universe into existence. The mind-boggling measurements referred to are beyond man's ability to comprehend. They have been cited by Kabbalists to drive home this very point.[The people who built the Tower, or at least their leaders, possessed some knowledge of these matters and wanted to establish something on earth which would reflect what existed in heaven, albeit in miniature. Their endeavour was similar to that of the Israelites when they built the Tabernacle, except that they had not been bidden to do so and wanted to rival G–d rather than draw Him into their midst, (cf. Bereshit Rabbah 38,6) Ed.]