ולקרב אל השכל יותר הוא בדרך משל

Let us make this more intelligible by means of an example.

A further example is needed in order to clarify this paradox — how G‑dliness simultaneously pervades the world and yet remains aloof from it, encircling and encompassing it (as it were) from above, and not being revealed within it.

כמו האדם שמצייר בדעתו איזה דבר שראה או שרואה

When a person forms an image in his mind of something that he has seen or sees,

הנה אף שכל גוף עצם הדבר ההוא, וגבו ותוכו ותוך תוכו, כולו מצוייר בדעתו ומחשבתו, מפני שראהו כולו או שרואהו

even though the entire body and essence of that thing, both its exterior and interior and its very core, are completely mirrored in his mind and thought, for he has seen it or is seeing it in its entirety,

הנה נקראת דעתו מקפת הדבר ההוא כולו

this is expressed by saying that his mind encompasses that object completely, and, just as in the mind’s frame of reference, so, too, regarding the perspective of the visualized object:

והדבר ההוא מוקף בדעתו ומחשבתו

and that thing is enveloped by his mind and thought.

רק שאינו מוקף בפועל ממש, רק בדמיון מחשבת האדם ודעתו

But it is not encompassed in actual fact, only in the imagination of the man’s thought and mind.

Since man’s thought is limited, he cannot actually encompass the object itself; he only encompasses its image as it exists within his mind.

אבל הקב״ה, דכתיב ביה: כי לא מחשבותי מחשבותיכם גו׳

G‑d, however, of Whom it is written:4 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,…” so that it is utterly impossible for us to grasp His thought process, —

הרי מחשבתו ודעתו, שיודע כל הנבראים, מקפת כל נברא ונברא מראשו ועד תחתיתו, ותוכו ותוך תוכו, הכל בפועל ממש

His Thoughts and His Mind, which knows all created beings, encompasses each and every created thing, from its head i.e., from its highest level to its end i.e., to its lowest level, and its inside and very core, all in actual reality, and not as with the thought of mortal man.

The Alter Rebbe now gives an example of G‑d’s thought and knowledge encompassing a specific object.

למשל: כדור הארץ הלזו, הרי ידיעתו יתברך מקפת כל עובי כדור הארץ, וכל אשר בתוכו ותוך תוכו, עד תחתיתו, הכל בפועל ממש

For example, in the case of the orb of this earth, His knowledge encompasses the entire diameter of the globe of the earth, together with all that is in it and its deepest interior to its lowest depths, all in actual reality.

שהרי ידיעה זו היא חיות כל עובי כדור הארץ כולו, והתהוותו מאין ליש

For this knowledge constitutes the vitality of the whole spherical thickness of the earth and its creation ex nihilo.

The whole earth was originally created and continues to be created ex nihilo as a result of G‑d’s knowledge of it.

רק שלא היה מתהווה כמות שהוא עתה, בעל גבול ותכלית, וחיות מועטת מאד כדי בחינת דומם וצומח

However, it would not have come into being as it is now, as a finite and limited thing, with an exceedingly minute degree of vitality sufficient for the categories of inorganic matter and vegetation,

אם לא על ידי צמצומים רבים ועצומים, שצמצמו האור והחיות שנתלבש בכדור הארץ

were it not for the world being created through the many powerful contractions which have condensed the light and vitality that is clothed in the orb of the earth,

להחיותו ולקיימו בבחינת גבול ותכלית, ובבחינת דומם וצומח בלבד

so as to animate it and sustain it in its finite and limited status and in the categories of inorganic and vegetable matter alone.

Thus the minute degree of illumination which results from the tzimtzumim enables the earth to exist in a finite manner, and only in the finitude of inorganic and vegetable matter. G‑d’s knowledge, however, as shall presently be explained, encircles the earth from above. For since His knowledge is infinite, while the world is finite, it is impossible for this knowledge to pervade the earth, even though this knowledge constitutes the earth’s very creation and existence.