Hashem Yithbarakh is Above Time
Hashem Yithbarakh is above time, as has been written[1]. And this matter is truly a very wonderful and hidden thing, and it is impossible to understand this through human intellect. But know: the essence of time is only because one does not understand: that is, because our intellect is small. For, the greater one's intellect, the more time is reduced and nullified. For, in a dream, when one's intellect goes away and he has nothing but the power of imagination, then in a quarter-hour one can experience an entire seventy years, the way it appears in the dream, as many, many periods pass by in a very short time. And then when one wakes up from sleep, he sees that all these times and the seventy years which passed in his sleep are really a very short period. And this is because afterwards, when awake, then his intellect returns to him, and in the intellect, all these seventy years that transpired in the dream are just a quarter-hour for him.
Except, an actual seventy years are also considered seventy years at our intellect; but in truth, at a higher intellect above our intellect, what is considered seventy real years by us is also only a quarter-hour or less. For, as we can see, that a person can pass seventy years in a dream, and in truth we know afterwards in our intellect that it is but a quarter hour — just the same way, that which is considered seventy real years by our intellect is, at a higher, loftier intellect, only a quarter hour. Except, we do not discern this, for in a dream too, if someone would come to him and say to him that all of this, which appears to him that days and years are transpiring, are nothing, and it is all just a quarter hour, he certainly would not believe him at all, for according to his imagination, it appears in the dream that real days and years pass by. Just the same, even though by us, according to our intellect, it seems that this is the period of seventy years, at a greater intellect it is only a quarter hour. And thus higher and higher, so that at an intellect that is even higher up further, even the time that is at an intellect higher than ours is only considered a very little and minor span, there at the further higher intellect. And thus higher and higher, to the extent that there is an intellect so high that there, all the time in its entirety does not count at all, for on account of the great enormity of the intellect, all the time is entirely null and zero completely, just as by us, the seventy years that transpire in a dream are only really a quarter hour, as mentioned. Thus there is intellect above intellect, until time is nullified completely.
And therefore Mashiach, who experienced what he experienced from the creation of the world and endured what he endured — after all this, at the end, Hashem Yithbarakh will say to him, "Beni atah, ani hayom yelidh'tikha/You are my son, I this day have begotten you" (Ps. 2). And the thing is very astounding and wonderous, apparently, but this is all due to great astoundingness of Mashiach's intellect, in accord with the greatness of his level which he will hold by at that time; and due to the exceeding enormity of his intellect's level, which will grow very, very great at that time, therefore all the time which has transpired over him from the world's creation until that time, will all be null and zero, tangibly, as if he was born today, for all time will be nullified in his intellect, which will be very vast. And therefore Hashem Yithbarakh will say to him, "Today I have begotten you" — today, tangibly, as all the time which has transpired is null and zero entirely, as mentioned.
And thus too we see in space, how a strong person can traverse a place in a short time; hence for him all this space is small, while for weak people this place is considered vast and one needs to walk a long time until passing through that place. And thus higher and higher: the greater one's strength, the smaller space is for him. And thus higher and higher, until space is nullified completely, except that in our intellect it is impossible to discern all this; just as it is impossible to discern in a dream the truth, that all that time that appears to him in the dream is truly nothing at all, so too with us: we cannot discern that all our time is nothing, above, in the high intellect, as mentioned.
- ↑ Mishneh Torah: Yesodei HaTorah 1:11