One Kabbalistic formulation of nondual Judaism is that God “fills and surrounds all worlds”-memaleh kol almin u’sovev kol almin. This formulation is found in the Zohar (for example, in Zohar III:225a, Raya Mehemna, Parshat Pinchas) and other medieval texts, such as the twelfth century “Hymn of Glory” which says that God “surrounds all, and fills all, and is the life of all; You are in All.” The aspect of memaleh, filling, we have already explored: it is that every particle of being is filled with God. As the Zohar continues: “He fills all worlds . . . He binds and unites one kind to another, upper with lower, and the four elements do not cohere except through the Holy Blessed One, as he is within them.”
Another Zoharic passage favored by nondualistic Hasidim is the statement that leit atar panui mineha, “there is no place devoid of God.” This phrase is found in the Tikkunei Zohar (57), a later addition to the Zoharic literature, but accorded great respect by subsequent generations of mystics. On a simple level, this sentence conveys the doctrine of omnipresence, and it was taken literally by Chabad Hasidism: “The meaning of He fills all the worlds and there is no place devoid of Him’ is truly literal,” says one text. Yet perhaps the simple is not so simple-if omnipresence truly includes every particle of being, every synapse in the brain, every place of beauty and ugliness.
Guide to Source above:
1. What does it mean that God “fills and surrounds all worlds”? Use your own words to explain what the Kabbalists intended.
2. Contrast this essential Kabbalistic idea with that of Rambam's theology from the beginning of Mishneh Torah.