CHAPTER 11

Sitting [yeshibah]. The first meaning given to this term in our language was that of being seated. Thus: Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat.¹ But in view of the fact that a sitting individual is in a state of the most perfect stability and steadiness, this term is used figuratively to denote all steady, stable, and changeless states. Thus when promising Jerusalem permanence and stability while she is in possession of the highest of ranks, Scripture says: She will rise and sit in her place.² And it also says: He maketh the barren woman to sit in her house;³ which means that He makes her firm and steady. In the latter sense it is said of God, may He be exalted: Thou, O Lord, sittest for all eternity;⁴ O Thou who sittest in the heaven;⁵ He that sitteth in heaven.⁶ That is, the stable One who undergoes no manner of change, neither a change in His essence—as He has no modes⁷ besides His essence with respect to which He might change—nor a change in His relation to what is other than Himself—since, as shall be explained later, there does not exist a relation with respect to which He could change. And herein His being wholly changeless in every respect achieves perfection, as He makes clear, saying: For I the Lord change not,8 meaning that He undergoes no change at all. In this sense, the term sitting is applied to Him, may He be exalted, in the verses I have cited. In most of these passages this term is used with reference to heaven, as the latter is changeless and without diversity; I mean to say that the individuals existing in it do not change, as do the individuals constituted by the terrestrial things, which are subject to generation and corruption. [21a] Similarly when a relation is ascribed equivocally to Him, may He be exalted, with respect to the various species of beings subject to generation and corruption, He is also said to be sitting. For these species are permanent, well ordered, endowed with a stable existence, such as is the existence of the individuals of heaven. Thus it says: He that sitteth above the circle of the earth;9 that is, the permanent and stable One over and above the circling of the earth—he means its rotation, the reference being to the things generated in it in rotation. It also says: The Lord sitteth at the flood.¹⁰ It means that when the state of the earth is changed and corrupted, there is no change in the relation of God, may He be exalted, to things; this relation remains the same—stable and permanent—whether the thing undergoes generation or corruption. For this relation subsists only with regard to the species of the various things subject to generation, not with regard to the individuals. Consider every mention of sitting applied to God, and you will discover that it is used in this sense.