CWP 3 - POTENTIALISM THEORY OF SUMMA METAPHYSICA BY DAVID BIRNBAUM

* DAVID BIRNBAUM PHILOSOPHY *

DAVID BIRNBAUM PHILOSOPHY

At the outset of God and Evil Birnbaum boldly asserts that he aims to provide an integrated and novel solution to the problem of (1) the origins of the cosmos, (2) the nature, as it were, of God, and (3) the presence of gross evil in a world governed by an omnipotent God. At this point, the expectation, at least for this reader, is for a complex, convoluted theory too abstract to be considered objectively. The result, however, a “potentiality model,” is just the opposite: profoundly discrete, yet overarching enough to satisfy the three initial aims.

With the presentation of the second book, this model now has four distinct dimensions. First, in God and Evil, it is thoroughly rooted in Biblical and academic theology. Second, in part one of God and Good, the metaphysical implications of the model are described. Third, in part two of God and Good, the model is presented in the form of 120 mythical Angels, adding texture to the metaphysics and drawing it into the realm of daily human reality. And finally, in the third section of God and Good, the ‘potentiality model’ is translated into a practical template for self-actualization.

It is difficult to recall a metaphysics as unified, yet as widely applicable, as the one presented here. The model’s foundation is concrete, while its implications are personal and thus varied. Each reader, therefore, will glean that which augments his or her own spiritual sensibility. As an Orthodox Jew, I find much in Birnbaum’s two works that bolsters my understanding of traditional Judaism.

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No less sui generis than the scope of Birnbaum’s work, is its relentless appeal to profound innate human understandings that cannot be adequately explicated in standard prose. Birnbaum employs a linguistic ensemble that at times resembles the water-tight, nitty-gritty reasoning of God and Evil, while at other times feels like terse jolts to the psyche. The author has turned away from the prevalent style of philosophy that so fervently analyzes metaphysical mysteries only to expose its own limitations. In breaking from convention, Birnbaum has taken a risk. He has gambled acceptance by refusing to succumb to a more traditional framework that would inevitably fail to fully represent the depth of ideas presented here.

The test lies in the heart of the reader. For all of its details and implications, the core of this work is unabashedly simple: potential drives existence. Does this concept seem foreign? or does it feel natural? If Birnbaum is successful, the reader will detect that the idea has an inherent organic power. This power can be explained in certain general contexts using standard language, but in others – particularly in the context of the individual – traditional explanations do not suffice.

Birnbaum posits that the force driving the cosmos pulsates within the soul of each individual, and so only a visceral response from the reader can fully reflect its impact. Is this achieved? Do the grand, general, cosmic principles yield to an understanding of the self? Does this awareness, in and of itself, have meaningful and practical implications for daily life? If it does, then Birnbaum has achieved something utterly unique.

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He has raised a preciously simple metaphysical centerpiece and enshrined it through its intrinsic affinity for the mind and the heart of the reader.

“I will cause a new utterance to be heard in the land:

Peace peace to the far and near, said the Lord.”

Isaiah 57:19

D. N. Khalil

Cold Spring Harbor

New York

Dr. D. N. Khalil is a scientist with the National Institute of Health.

He teaches Jewish Philosophy at Long Island University.

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A
“Subtle
Dynamic”

When I was ~11 years old, (in the early 1960s), I was a sixth grade student at (scholastically demanding Modern Orthodox) Yeshiva Dov Revel in Forest Hills,
(in Queens, NY of tennis championship fame). About

a third of my fellow students were children of Holocaust survivors, or of 1930s emigrés from Europe. The evils
of the Holocaust were raw – and it was not at all clear that the theology could handle it.

The philosophical situation was not much better for more general philosophical or general inter-related scientific questions, like: How did this universe come to be? If God existed, where did this all-powerful God come from? If God did not exist, what drove the universe? Why was there anything at all?

Thus, we were in sixth grade in a top Jewish Day School, and the fundamental and core philosophical, theological, and scientific questions remained thoroughly unanswered – at home, at shul (synagogue), and at school.

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I intuitively felt that out there, there was one elegant yet subtle dynamic – a potentially relatively simple idea – which everyone was just missing – which, if uncovered, would, indeed, “crack-the-cosmic-code,” and perhaps the bulk of these issues simultaneously. I felt that it was at the very edge of human awareness. Waiting to be discerned. However, it was clear that discerning it might take years...

At the same time, I was frankly not all-that-sure that Orthodox Judaism or Judaism or monotheism would survive the “code breaking.” My gut-feeling was that it would be a close-call.

I determined to learn what I could learn about the world – and observe what I could observe – and, as an aside to my life, try to uncover that elusive ‘code-cracking’ dynamic. I embarked on an informal odyssey seeking this philosophical and theological “Holy Grail”: the “highest common denominator”.

In January 1982, ~two decades later – on the beach in the Barbados of all places, “matters crystallized.” The elusive “simultaneous solution.” The precise moment is ingrained in my psyche, of course, freeze-framed.

The dynamic which I discerned may have been “subtle,” but it was certainly not without power. I was now more than quite fully “psyched-up.”

First, I had to get back to NY, to a library, a big library. This was pre-GOOGLE, and then we really needed big libraries for potentially “original concepts.”

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I did two reality-checks, the first with my Yeshiva University High School comrade, intellectual consigliere, and close friend-to-this-day Steven Gross (of NY and Jerusalem) 30 days into the project. He was a GO.

The second reality-check was at the ~6 month mark, with my Great Neck neighbor (who I had never actually met prior) and soon-to-be quite world-renowned, Lawrence Schiffman, Professor of Jewish History at NYU, and budding Dead Sea Scrolls expert’s expert. He too was a GO – and admonished me to maintain total secrecy until the book was actually out. He would, in due course, unilaterally volunteer to personally Copy Edit the manuscript start-to-finish – TWICE – Draft #1 (in 1985) and Draft #2 (in 1986) – to maintain its total confidentiality, and prep-it for submission to the putative publisher in due course. Schiffman valiantly moved to vigilantly protect and advance the project and insure the manuscript’s power and viability. Once-in-a-while in life, one encounters a truly extraordinary individual, dedicated to his craft and to the pursuit of knowledge and truth. The Dead Sea Scrolls – and the Discovery Channel – would have to wait just a touch more....

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A solitary five years of work after that epiphanous ‘moment’ on the beach in the Barbados, the manuscript for God and Evil was completed in time for the birth of my first child, Rafaella, January 1986. The editors at KTAV Publishing, who accepted the book for publication later in 1986, cautioned me that if one comma was out-of-place on my erstwhile revolutionary thesis, I would be crucified – by the Jews. And they did not want to be party to a crucifixion. I frankly thought they were a little overwrought, but in any event, the book was micro-edited over the course of 1987, and then published and released in November 1988.

At first there were “sounds of silence.” But then matters began to roll. The work would go through Five Printings between 1988 and 2000.

The primary editor, scholar-extraordinaire Yaacov Elman of Yeshiva University did a fastidious job with his plodding hyper-perfectionism. Word by word of the text, then the 600+ footnotes, footnote by footnote. No word of the text or related has been changed in any of the printings, including the printing incorporated now into the 2-book Summa Metaphysica series.

Before the Jewish journals got around to reviewing the book, in their own good time, to our astonishment the major Jesuit publications around the world, in-short-order – reviewed it – in-depth and enthusiastically. Theological Studies Journal (then at Georgetown University) led the charge – juxtaposing the concepts of the work against those of Aquinas very specifically. Sounded good to me...

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Simultaneously, Brandeis University started assigning the work as a Required Text – Masters Degree graduate Term Papers and all – in Advanced Religious Philosophy. In the early 1990s, Hebrew University (Jerusalem), Yeshiva University, Jewish Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary (Christian) and, later, Emory, started assigning the work in Philosophy and/or Jewish Thought. Other universities in the USA and around-the-world would follow.

It sounds like a simple enough journey. But it was a very, very solitary and hi-risk endeavor.

I believe the hypothesis is on-the-mark. Its core inherent power gave me the motivation to embark on the project.

D.B.

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To the reader -

My (previously) agnostic SOHO WebSite designer,
after reading the text said I should add the following alert at the very beginning of the book,
so here-it-goes…

“Hey you – potential Reader – THIS, all this, applies to YOU, don’t go away, read this! It isn’t over your head;
it IS your head… This book about GOD is a transcendent work… Read this work and enter an extraordinary realm”

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From Dena Crowder
Silicon Valley, CA
Conceptual Solutions for Fortune 500 companies

“Birnbaum is asking people to dream/vision/think beyond the metaphysical “box” they’ve been trapped in for centuries.

Birnbaum’s paradigm has the “think different” flavor of the Apple campaign of a couple of years ago.

Summa’s system is as much a solution, as it is an opening to a new conversation, and an invitation to an entirely new discourse.”

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“Adoshem Echad, u-Shemo Echad”*

– Zechariah 14:10

at the finalé of the iconic liturgical prayer Aleinu,

which itself is generally at the service finalé

possible translation #1:
“God is One, and His name is One”

possible translation #2:
“God is a Singularity, and His name is a Singularity”

possible translation #3
“God is One Dynamic, and His name is One Dynamic”

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Jewish Encyclopedia Online, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/

view.jsp?artid=18&letter=B (accessed October 5, 2009)

BAAL SHEM TOV

(“The Besht”)

“The foundation-stone of Hasidism as laid by Besht is a strongly marked pantheistic conception of God. He declared the whole universe, mind and matter, to be a manifestation of the Divine Being; that this manifestation is not an emanation from God, as is the conception of the Kabbalah, for nothing can be separated from God: all things are rather forms in which He reveals Himself…”

As noted in Encyclopaedia Judaica on Baal Shem Tov {1997} [CD-ROM]

BASIC IDEAS OF HASIDISM

Creator and Universe

“‘The hasidic leader R. Menahem Mendel of Lubavich observes (Derekh Mitzvotekha (1911), 123) that the disciples of the Ba’al Shem Tov gave the “very profound” turn to the doctrine of the oneness of God so that it means not alone that He is unique, as the medieval thinkers said, but that He is all that is:…there is no other existence whatsoever apart from His existence, blessed be He. This is true unification…just as there was no existence apart from Him before the world was created so it is even now.” …as a corollary of hasidic pantheism (more correctly, panentheism)…’”

(author’s note: there are no extant writings of the Besht)

(see also Appendix F1: Hasidic v. Kabbalistic)

DAVID BIRNBAUM PHILOSOPHER

DAVID BIRNBAUM METAPHYSIST

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Overview

God and Good, this companion–work and sequel to God and Evil (1988)

is composed of

3 inter–related works:

Part I: The Cosmic Womb of Potential

An original proposed metaphysics.

It dovetails with the metaphysics explicated in the first book of the series, God and Evil

Part II: God’s 120 Guardian Angels

A quasi–mythical work of quasi–poetry which
is used as a vehicle to explicate and flesh-out
“Quest for Potential∞” from a different angle.

Part III: The Lost Manual

This work plays with applicability of the metaphysics noted in the prior sections, but on an INDIVIDUAL level.

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The work maintains that Quest for Potential∞ drives not only the COSMOS as well as the DIVINE but also, the INDIVIDUAL, all in 1:1 parallel to one another.

.....and that “enlightened Self-Actualization” is front– and–center in human development.

The Lost Manual is a self–actualization guide as well as a 21st century (alleged) “Wisdom Book” along with several other treats.

Q4P = Quest for Potential∞

Q4F = Quest for Fulfillment

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Author’s note

Metaphysics is ultimately about the questions that
5-year-olds ask.

for example,

Why is there anything ?

Where is everything headed ?

Where is God ?

Therefore, to write Metaphysics one must be at least
as smart – and as ‘open’ as – a 5-year-old

That is not necessarily as easy as it sounds

This work attempts to advance our understanding of
the cosmos.

This work attempts to get us where others have not… into the very “throne room” of metaphysics…

But, the infinitely evolving, morphing and expanding cosmos does not yield its secrets easily

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We will need to peel-it-away layer-by-layer

Approach by approach. Theme by theme.
Conjecture by conjecture. Hypothesis by hypothesis.

With no significant mistakes at any level

– as that would throw-off the expeditionary journey

Please note that, respectfully, I only write one treatise / lifetime – and this is it. There are no philosophy books before – or after.

Be assured that I have endeavored to be very, very careful with what I commit to paper.

* * *

Oh, one last thing......

To understand the infinite cosmos, one truly need not spend-a-life-time peering through large telescopes or fathoming hyper-complex physics equations or wading-
through dozens of esoteric writings.....Indeed, respectfully, they will not advance you beyond, say, “second base.” One needs, however, to attempt to listen very carefully to the very core of one’s soul.

Sincerely,

David Birnbaum

*a little poetic license taken here

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Q4P∞

Quest for Potential

(infinitely recursive)

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

All notes and footnotes in Book #1 (God and Evil)
are crafted by BIRNBAUM.

All NOTES in Book #2 (God and Good),
are by KHALIL.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

note that KHALIL re-starts his NOTES numbering
(starting again from 1)
in each sub-section in which he has commentary.

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Part I: The Cosmic Womb
of Potential
(the first of the three major parts of God and Good)

The “Cosmic Womb of Potential” nourishes, enhances, and sustains the potentializing of all aspects of the Cosmic order – including itself. Nourished, enhanced and sustained within this womb, and, indeed, integral to it, we live and attempt to thrive and advance.

The infinitely expanding and traversing aspect stretches forward through time…from the very origin
of origins to the forward reaches of time.

It is this time–spanning infinitude which renders
all of us an integral neo–infinite part of this infinite dynamic/entity.

This infinitely expanding dynamic/entity strives after its own maximal potential, relentlessly advancing and expanding, again, recursively, a womb woven within
a womb within a womb.

Potential is the amniotic fluid of the infinitely expanding Cosmic Womb.

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[Parallel to a womb, the temperature of the universe is actually a Constant. Throughout its vast expanse. Of course, the temperature of the universe is a slightly colder at 2.73 degrees above Absolute Zero. (Absolute Zero is -459.67 degrees Farenheit, or -273.15 degrees Celsius). But it is a Constant.]

[Some formations found towards one end of the Universe appear as almost
twins on the other side of the Universe. Contemporary scientific theory is at-a-loss to explain...]

“U–vacharta ba–chayim”

(And thou shalt choose Life – Deuteronomy)

Q4P = Quest for Potential∞

Q4F = Quest for Fulfillment

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ALPHA: Lay–of–the–Land

Where did it all come from? (question of 5 year–old)

Why is there anything at all? (5 year-old in Private School kindergarten...future Talmud scholar)

What are the origins of the cosmos? (Cosmogony)

[inter-related with...]

What triggered the “Big Bang”? (Physics question)

What drives the cosmos? (Cosmology)

If there is a God, what are the origins of god? (Theogony)

If there is a classic God, why is there gross Evil? (Theodicy)

Why is there “REALITY” at all?
(enlightened college student)

[similar to question above of 5 year-old in private kindergarten]

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Is there REALITY at all?
(college student taking too many philosophy courses)

What is “CONSCIOUSNESS”?
(enlightened layman)

Wherefore “CONSCIOUSNESS”?
(putative best-selling biology writer)

What is the purpose of man?
(“Purpose of Man” question)

What is the purpose of the cosmos?
(uncategorized)

If DARWIN was right,

Wherefore, for instance, the extraordinary intricacies of 9 month fetal development – in the greater context of interdependent life? (Darwinian Theory challenge)

If mainstream (linear) INTELLIGENT DESIGN is right, who or what – is the DESIGNER? – and who designed the DESIGNER?
(classic conundrum faced by classical Intelligent Design proponents...very imminently to be answered)

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To the Reader:
As promised, this Summa Metaphysica SERIES will present an original – and presumably compelling – approach, answer and solution. Relax, sip a low calorie drink, and enjoy
the ride... As prior, we do value your time, and fully intend to “deliver the goods.” Note that while there is some ‘fancy footwork’ along the way, the core theme, which you are aware of, remains intact – and flows through the core of the work consistently. So, follow the flow of the book. Don’t get stuck on any one sentence
or paragraph or page.

If ~stuck on a sentence, re-read it once, perhaps, then roll
forward regardless. No one sentence or paragraph makes-or-breaks Book #2. The concepts are all attaching to the core
‘spinal column’ of POTENTIAL.......Extraordinariation. Your subconscious will connect-the-various dots. Matters will
crystallize further.

Then, as appropriate, consider looping-around for a second
run at the entire book. It should have a different texture in subsequent run-throughs. We are endeavoring to “get-our-arms around” the Cosmic Code, and, indeed, around the INFINITE.
If this were so simple, it would have been done previously.

At this point, I am going to rapidly introduce the first series of hypothesized “Cosmic Tools.” Each is actually inter-related with
the others. Note that the explanations for each are perhaps
less intimidating than the individual ‘tool names.’

– Birnbaum

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BETA: The Cosmic “Tool Kit”

COSMIC TOOL KIT

Shelf #1

[COSMIC TOOL KIT- Shelf #2 is to be found at the end
of Cosmic Womb of Potential]

tools:

* DIVISION INTO POLARITIES & DUALITIES *

* SIMULTANEOUS PUSH / PULL TENSION *

* INFINITELY-COILED SPIRALITY *

* COSMIC ‘LEVERAGED BUYOUT’ (“BOOTSTRAPPING”) *

* (INFINITE) RECURSIVENESS & (INFINITE)

LOOP-ABILITY *

* 1:1 METAPHYSICAL CORRESPONDENCE *

* MITOSIS OF “0” *

* INEXORABLE LIFE-QUESTING *

* VACUUM-BUSTING *

* INEXORABLE & INFINITE ASCENTS *

* MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MORPHING *

* OPTIMIZATION *

* COSMIC-TAPESTRY-WEAVING *

* QUEST FOR INFINITE DIVINE EXTRAORDINARIATION *

* INTERLOCKING DIVINE INFINITUDE QUEST *

* HYPER-COSMIC RESOURCEFULNESS *

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note:

Starting with this sub-section, there are NOTES by KHALIL;

There are approximately three dozen NOTES total by KHALIL – all in this Part I of the book – “THE COSMIC WOMB of POTENTIAL”.

“A carpenter needs good tools”

– Carpenter’s union

Hypothesis:

We propose and hypothesize the following Cosmic “Tool Kit”

[This “Tool Kit” is key and integral to our proposed metaphysics]

This “Tool Kit” might seem to be a ‘light’ section, but essentially provides the “SET of KEYS” necessary to open the vault containing the elusive ‘Cosmic Code’ …once you examine the Tool Kit, the Holy Grail of metaphysics is laid bare… discern the Tool Kit – and the construction of the Metaphysics of the Cosmos
falls readily into place^1,2

(sounds presumptuous enough)

(all “TOOLS” are direct sub-components of the
overarching Quest for Potential∞)

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••• TOOL:
* DIVISION into POLARITIES & DUALITIES *

Polarities and Dualities

as well as assorted complementary

Positives / Negatives,

are the BUILDING BLOCKS

and counter-point balancers

of the cosmic order

(Articulation of this concept – whose core is not original – commenced in God and Evil…. The ‘spin’ may be original, but there is, indeed, voluminous literature on the subject in many cultures and many languages stretching back thousands of years)

NOTES by KHALIL

¹ “readily into place” A: In his preamble to Derech Hashem Moshe Chaim Luzatto writes that before a subject such as this can be mastered it must be understood in a most general way first. General principles and overarching themes are to be understood before details are probed. Once the framework of the subject is made clear, one will then be able to place each detail into its proper context automatically, and he will ”delight” in understanding new facts that add texture to the framework. This work – God and Good – is written with this concept in mind.

² “readily into place” B: The Cosmic Womb of Potential, and particularly the Tool Kit, will elucidate the general principles that are central to the paradigm presented here. The “Master Craftsman” of the cosmos employs a cosmic tool kit. Extraordinary tools open–the–way for a potentially extraordinary construct. Examine the Tool Kit, and you will grasp the dimensions of the cosmic construct.

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••• TOOL:
* SIMULTANEOUS PUSH / PULL TENSION *
(my term)

Masculine / Feminine

Components of the cosmos are in

DYNAMIC TENSION and/or ENGAGEMENT

Some components simultaneously

PUSH from one dimension, and PULL from another realm

For example: a component may PUSH from a metaphysical level,

while it PULLS from a REALITY realm – or from a still further-out POTENTIAL realm.

••• TOOL:
* INFINITELY-COILED SPIRALITY *
(my term)

INFINITELY-COILED SPIRALITY is the favorite infinity-tool in the Tool Kit.

One can conjecture that the specific ‘spirality’ parallels a double-helix.

Meaning, COILED SPIRALITY is the “cosmic highway”.

Encapsulization: The cosmos is more like an infinitely coiled – and expanding – and regenerating – spiral spring.

SPIRALITY is closely inter-linked with…

“BOOTSTRAPPING” (another cosmic tool, next)

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••• TOOL:
* Cosmic ‘Leveraged Buyout’ (“BOOTSTRAPPING”) *
(my term)

Leveraging (infinite) POTENTIALS down–the–road^{3, 4, 5}

(forward towards infinity) to energize the ‘present’

A key concept positioned centrally in the predecessor work God and Evil, but using more prosaic terminology here. This above–proposed “TOOL” alone could keep metaphysics – and physics – busy for a thousand
years or so.

Encapsulization: Potentials down-the-road energize the PRESENT (and initially ignited CREATION itself).

••• TOOL:
* (Infinite) Recursiveness & (Infinite) Loop–ability *
(my term)

An entity or theme repeating within itself.....indefinitely... is a key cosmic theme. For instance POTENTIAL, as we define it, is recursive… i.e.

Potential within Potential within Potential ad infinitum

Recursiveness of Quest for Potential∞:

The power of Q4P (Quest for Potential∞) hinges on its (infinite) recursiveness. Like an infinitely coiled spring.

To the extent that it keeps iterating infinitely outward and onward, it self–charges and perpetuates its power.Another way of looking at this is always assuming

Q4P to mean – Q4P to the power–of–infinity.

NOTES by KHALIL

³ Leverage A: “Leveraged Buyout” is a term from finance. It refers to a case in which a financier buys a company using future earnings as the collateral. For instance, a financier might offer to pay $1 million dollars a year for ten years to buy a company. And where, does he plan to get the million dollars per year? From the future projected earnings of the company – of $1.5 million dollars a year. The financier essentially buys the company using the company’s own future earnings (i.e. He buys the company with the company’s own potential). Birnbaum is positing throughout Summa Metaphysica that the original “leveraged buyout” concept was cosmic. The cosmos was created, he hypothesizes, out of the cosmos’ own potential.

⁴ Leverage B: Plato had infused in Western philosophy that “God” created the universe out of ‘primal matter’ even though Plato never articulates just where this primal matter came from – just as he never explicates where ”God” came from. Platonic thought –
and, indeed, most Western philosophical thought – including classic Jewish philosophy – is linear, i.e. A created B created C, etc.

Birnbaum’s paradigm, on the other hand, is ‘bootstrap’, i.e. the potential of A ignites A retroactively. The Torah Itself has a one –phrase all–encompassing treatise on Jewish philosophy: “Eheyeh Asher Eheyeh”. This is Potential within Potential within Potential, which Birnbaum seizes upon as the crux of Summa Metaphysica.

⁵ Leverage C: A classic theme in Jewish thought is “yesh mai–ayen,” the creation of somethingness, from nothingness. This ‘magic trick’ receives an elegant ‘makeover’ in Birnbaum’s “leveraged buyout” theme, namely that potentials down–the–road ignited the cosmos. Now, finance is not cosmology – and cosmology is not finance, but the “leveraged buyout” theme can indeed be applied to both. Indeed, there is a 1:1 parallel between the two.