VI. YHWH as a partner
Viewed in this manner, YHWH is a partner with humankind in the development of our universe, was here at the beginning, has been here all along and will be here with us until the end since it is His job to oversee the development of our universe and of our control of that universe. Under this, partner, co-author, view, God (YHWH) started our Universe or was thrust into it by Ein Sof without knowing the ultimate outcome and is still participating in and learning from the events that He started. In other words, “let’s start this and then just see what happens.” Furthermore, since YHWH must be less than Ein Sof in order for Him to be accessible to us, YHWH will have powers that are less than those of Ein Sof. One of the powers that is less than that of Ein Sof is the power to predict the future and know what will happen because if YHWH knows what will happen, why would it be of any interest or benefit for Him to communicate with us or to receive communication from us or even interact with us at all? Thus, our God, YHWH, does not know the outcome and is thus accessible to us as a partner in this endeavor. Furthermore, in order to have consistency so we can act based on known or at least knowable consequences associated with such actions, there must be certain rules which neither we nor God can violate[1] (except in the most extreme situations where the entire experiment[2] would be destroyed but for a violation of such rules by God).
YHWH’s job was to start things off
(see Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth….?”) and
to protect the experiment from being totally destroyed by forces beyond the
control of man (for example, diverting a planet-sized meteor from colliding
with earth and totally destroying the earth). On the other hand, our job in this
partnership is to control our physical world and its contents (to exercise
dominion over the world). Each partner stays out of the other partner’s way,
and when there is encroachment, there is trouble.
[1] See the essay titled “God’s Ground Rules”.
[2] As discussed in the essay “Partners,” the term “experiment” will be applied to our universe in general and as a whole and our earth specifically with the covenant between God and the Jews charging the Jews with the responsibility of translating what God wants for the earth for the other inhabitants of the earth.