Kaisipang Hudyo sa Mga Awit 115:16: Akeidat Yitzchak & Guide for the Perplexed

On the verse "anything the Lord wants, He does, in the heavens and on earth," (Psalms 135,6) Shemot Rabbah 12, comments as follows. This statement is to be understood by means of a parable. A king decreed that his Roman subjects were not to travel to Syria, whereas his Syrian subjects were not to travel to Rome. There came a time when the king wished to marry a lady from Syria. He therefore cancelled the decree, and said "henceforth Romans may travel to Syria and Syrians may travel to Rome. I myself will be the first to set the example." Similarly, when G-d created the universe at first, He decreed that "the heavens belong to the Lord, the earth to mankind." When He became ready to give Israel the Torah, He said that henceforth the inhabitants of the lower regions may ascend towards heaven, and heavenly beings will be permitted to move towards earth. G-d Himself would be the first to descend. Thus we find it written "the Lord descended on Mount Sinai." (Exodus 19,20) To Moses G-d said "come up to G-d, you, Aaron, Nadav and Avihu and seventy of the elders of Israel." This is the meaning of "whatever G-d likes to do, He does, both in heaven and on earth."

What I said before (ch. xxii.) I will repeat now, namely, that the theory of Aristotle, in explaining the phenomena in the sublunary world, is in accordance with logical inference: here we know the causal relation between one phenomenon and another; we see how far science can investigate them, and the management of nature is clear and intelligible. But of the things in the heavens man knows nothing except a few mathematical calculations, and you see how far these go. I say in the words of the poet, “The heavens are the Lord’s, but the earth He hath given to the sons of man” (Ps. 115:16); that is to say, God alone has a perfect and true knowledge of the heavens, their nature, their essence, their form, their motions, and their causes; but He gave man power to know the things which are under the heavens: here is man’s world, here is his home, into which he has been placed, and of which he is himself a portion. This is in reality the truth. For the facts which we require in proving the existence of heavenly beings are withheld from us: the heavens are too far from us, and too exalted in place and rank. Man’s faculties are too deficient to comprehend even the general proof the heavens contain for the existence of Him who sets them in motion. It is in fact ignorance or a kind of madness to weary our minds with finding out things which are beyond our reach, without having the means of approaching them. We must content ourselves with that which is within our reach, and that which cannot be approached by logical inference let us leave to him who has been endowed with that great and divine influence, expressed in the words: “Mouth to mouth do I speak with Him” (Num. 12:8).