מה הנפש ממלאה את הגוףAs the Soul Fills the Body

mah ha-nefesh memalle et ha-gufIn Gamatria ↗

The soul in the body is the first witness to God.

Asked for a proof that God exists, Yehoyada grants the philosophers' proofs from the world's beginning and the moving spheres. The kabbalists add one from the soul: a person is a small world, and as the body needs its soul, the great world needs its Ruler (Ra'aya Meheimna, Pinḥas). He reads the Midrash on 'Bless the Lord, O my soul' as six principles. As the soul fills the body, bears it, is alone in it, neither eats nor drinks, is pure, and sees without being seen, so is God to the world. Shaltiel objects that an ambiguous midrash cannot found articles of faith. Yehoyada shows each is explicit in the Zohar. No place is empty of His rule. He sustains the world, unlike a builder whose house stands without him. He alone acts, though through the sefirot. Nothing benefits Him.

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