Da'as Tevunos - Section 58

Said the Intellect - I will explain to you more in this introduction, and you will understand a deep idea; and similarly you will understand their saying may they be blessed (Breisheet Rabbah 68:9), "He is the place of the world and the world is not his place":

Behold, there is nothing that necessitates existence except for His existence may He be blessed, and everything that exists except for that has no existence except through His desire may He be blessed, and we find that it is dependent and stands only through His will may He be blessed. And therefore we read, that all existence which is found is dependent on His word may He be blessed, like the matter which they said with regard to the upper waters (Breisheet Rabbah 4:3, Taanit 10a) and like the matter that they said may their memory be for a blessing (Chaggigah 12b), "The land upon what does it stand - upon the pillars...", "... and the wind hangs upon the arm of the Holy One blessed is He". And similarly did they say further (Yalkut Shimoni section 1, 964), "...flesh and blood are under their load, but the Holy One blessed is He is above his load as it says (Deuteronomy 33:27), and the world is beneath his arms". He compared it as if he supports all that exists in all its details, and he stands upon them from above:

And it is a general rule and the matter is that of which I spoke, that because existence which is innovated from Him may He be blessed, is necessitated by him in general, therefore it is supported only by that which His straight will wants of it. And understand well that only His will and his decree is the place for all that exist, and without it there would not be a place at all. And therefore He may His name be blessed certainly precedes but His creation is not preexistent, to exclude that which the heretics say, that since he is preexistent then the universe must also be preexistent. For until he willed and decreed this, there was not place for creations to exist; just the opposite, according to His existence may He be blessed, they have no argument, for they are not according to the that which is engraved in the rule of the nature of man, rather He alone may He be blessed must exist out of necessity and nothing other than Him, and this is straightforward. But rather since He willed them, and decreed this that the creations should exist, therefore they have a place and not without this. And we find, that when he decreed this - He gave a place for all of the constructions that he made after that:

And you will understand further, that even though now we know that the Holy One blessed is He is pleased by all of his actions, and they are an honor to him, like it says (Psalms 104:31), "HaShem's honor will be forever HaShem is pleased with his actions", don't think that because of this that at a time when these were not present, that there was something deficient from Him may He be blessed pleasure or honor G-d forbid. Rather we already said, the Master may His name be blessed in his straightforward existence - there is no place for creations along with Him at all, because they are not relevant to His essence. But with his will for them, then because of the desire and this will they exist for him for pleasure, as if it were possible, and for honor. For certainly this desire is what give existence to these entities which exist, and calls out that it is not complete, if their existence would not be made. And behold this is like a place which stands to have buildings built upon it, that it is a void as long as it is not filled with those buildings. And not only the creations alone, rather even all of the manners of interaction and the rules, the types of flowing influence that we mentioned, that are according to our value and not according to his value, they have no relevance at all except with his will for the existence of the entities which exist. Therefore only through this desire did He innovate all of them, and they are not necessary for him; but they are also in the rubric of the constructs which fill this place, because these and those are needed to complete this desire, and this is clear. And behold we have explained that which is adequate for us in this matter: