The key to understanding a a large range of issues in Judaism is understanding that God is completely outside of time. Intellectually, I think most people accept this in some form. You often see it as apologetics for the whole age of the universe debate, "Well, God's outside time, so its not really 5771 years" stuff like that. But I don't think people really, truly believe it. I don't think most of us really have any idea what that really means, sort of accept it as fact, but when it comes down to it, we don't believe it. We do this with a bunch of things. Intellectually, we accept God as having no physical form, but when it comes down to it, when we get to a passuk which says "God said" we envision a big old dude with a white beard speaking in a booming baritone. But that's a discussion for a different post, I suppose.
Anyway, what does it mean that God is outside of time? The movie "Memento" may be a good way to arrive at an answer. The plot of Memento, if you haven't seen it, is about a guy who, due to a brain injury, can not form new memories. All he knows is the guy who injured him killed his wife, their name is John G., and that in order to keep that going he needs to write little notes to himself. Its a great movie, if you havent seen it, see it. So, if, like the main character in "Memento", are unable to form new memories, then you have no concept of "the past". Think about the location you currently find yourself in. How did you get there? Because you walked there from this place, which you took a bus to, and so and so forth. You are currently existing because of a series of previous events. But, if you had no ability to form memories, you have no concept of "past". You are here not because of anything that happened before, because in your mind, there is no "before". There is only "now". All you have is your present circumstances. The movie makes this point quite ingeniously with its unique narrative structure. Most movies work the way our minds do. You start off with some background, and as events occur, it builds upon your previous knowledge. For instance, you see a guy, you find out his name is Bob, we find out he is a warrior who needs to defeat the evil Thomas, we see Bob fighting his way through obstacles, he gets to Thomas, he defeats him, happy ending. Everything that happens is built upon what we already know. But in Memento, the first scene in the movie is the last chronologically. The viewer has no idea whats going on, much like the movie's main character. The movie progress backwards. Each scene chronologically preceded the scene before it. We see the movie as the protagonist experiences it, as a series of presents, one after the other, each time figuring out where you are. Again, its a brilliantly done movie. However, he still has some concept of time, that he does not experience, but accepts. He does not remember his past, but because of the notes he writes to himself believes its there. This can be explained by the assumption (which may or may not be true) that he was not born that way, therefore, he knows there is such a thing as time. But, imagine if he was born with no ability to form memories. Not only would he be unable to perceive such thing as a past, he would be unable to ever accept it to be reality. And because of this, having no concept of past at all, he would definitely be unable to perceive such thing as "future" as well. I mean, think of how irrational "future" is to even sane human beings. I could accept such a thing as a past, as I have memories of it, but to perceive of something I, by definition, have not experienced at all? Even more so for someone who can't perceive a past as well. How would that person perceive life? Completely in the present. It'd be a short life, to him. He'd never have a concept he wasn't about to die.
So that's what it means to be outside of time: To not be within the confines of past and future, but to perceive things all at the same time as part of one present. This is how God views all of history. As happening right now, at the same time. It is us that perceives the world as having a beginning, middle, and endpoint. The creation story is from our perspective, as having happened in the confines of time, God creating on the first, second, third, etc. days. But to God, its one big Creation, the entirety of history being created at one instant, beginning, middle, end. I think this can answer the question that people ask, "If God is perfect, then why didn't he create a perfect world?". The answer, taking this approach, is he did. He created a perfect world, but part of creating a perfect world was that it go through a process of perfection. We, perceiving things in time, are at the point where the world is in the process of being perfected. But it will be. So as God perceives it, the world is perfect. As we perceive it, it's not yet perfect.
Miracles now make sense as well. If God is perfect, and he created nature with perfect wisdom, then why would he need to go back with it and futz it with it every so often? The mistaken assumption of the question was that he finished it, and then set it and forgot it. The world is in a constant state of creation, every second that something exists in this world God is willing it into existence. He can play with the "system", because he never finished creating it.
I also think this is a way to understand the conflict between Divine Omnipotence and Human Free Will. The two sides of the argument, as I see it, are this:
To be continued when I get back to a computer
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