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Question:

Can God create a rock he cannot lift? Sorry if this is a heretical question, but I’d really appreciate an answer. Thanks.



AskTheRabbi.org answered:

My 5 year old son asked me a similar question: "Daddy," he said with a devilish grin, "can God make this fork to be that it never was?"

 The answer to his question, and to yours, is: No. God can't do something that is a contradiction.

God can't divide 5 evenly by 2, can't win at chess starting with only a king, and can't spell "table" correctly using only 4 letters.

The reason God can't do these things is because we have not specified a thing to do; we have contradicted ourselves in the description. "A rock too heavy for the Almighty" is a self-contradiction, because the Almighty is...All Mighty! Therefore, by definition, such a rock can't exist. So your question boils down to: "Can God create something which cannot exist?" Of course not; that's a self-contradiction. God's "inability" to do such a thing does not indicate a lack in God; rather, it indicates our failure to define what it is we are asking.


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