Maimonides described the question of God having a purpose for His creation as “absurd” and declared that there is no single and ultimate purpose for Creation. Hasdai Crescas, by contrast, believed that God’s purpose for Creation is that man shall be together with God in a relationship of perfect and eternal love. I feel sure that Moses would have agreed with Hasdai Crescas, in general if not in specifics, and will explain why in what follows.

However, when considering the purpose of Creation it is important to keep in mind one very important distinction, one that tends to get lost in the terminology employed when discussing this subject. That distinction is between Gods purpose for His creation on the one hand and man’s purpose within His creation on the other, the latter of which is frequently and ambiguously referred to as ‘the meaning of life’. Needless to say the two purposes are linked but they are not identical and it is important to identify both if we are to be able to confidently answer all questions pertaining to this most important subject. In what follows I will therefore seek answers to two questions: What is God’s purpose for Creation, including His purpose in creating man, and what is man’s purpose in Creation?

In the following explanation Part 1 and the first passage of Part 2 are identical to Part 1 and the first passage of part 2 of the Explanation of the Meaning of the Name. The reason for this is that both explanations derive from the same fundamental premises, which are that God is One in His Person and perfect in unity in the condition of His essence, and because the first five passages are equally a part of both explanations.

The format is identical to that in the Explanation of the Meaning of the Name.

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