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I am looking for a list of sources (early Rishonim and before) explicitly claiming that G-d is perfect.

One place I found is Devarim 32:4 "The deeds of the [Mighty] Rock are perfect, for all His ways are just; a faithful God, without injustice He is righteous and upright." This is not exactly perfection of G-d, just perfection of His work (good enough for me, but perfection of G-d is preferable). The Sifri on this verse spells it out explicitly.

Another is the description of the 2nd of 13 Principles of Rambam in the introduction to the Perek Cheilek in Maseches Sanhedrin, in his commentary on the Mishnah. He spells it out clear there (interestingly, in the siddur an equivalence is used - His Uniqueness - but I want it to mention perfection explicitly).

Thank you very much.

EDIT A question was raised which word in lashon hakodesh is being sought precisely. A variant of the word שלם shalem (e.g. שלמות sheleimus) would be ideal, but תם tam or תמים tamim would be ok too.

Charles Koppelman
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gt6989b
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  • according to the shaar yichud ch.10, you cannot describe God in any way whatsoever. Everything we find in scripture such as great, merciful, mighty, One etc. is only to negate the opposite. hence you will not find a reliable source describing God, but only those describing how He manifest Himself to us, i.e. His handiworks – ray Oct 28 '13 at 07:39
  • @ray That which Shaar Yichud means, and all Rishonim seem to agree (which is rare), is that you cannot describe Infinity with positive attributes. However, all agree that negative attributes are ok - and perfection is negative attribute, because it means there is no lack/defect. For a counterexample that you cannot find such things, note the text of the question with citations of Sifri and Rambam. – gt6989b Oct 28 '13 at 13:08
  • @gt6989b see this link http://dafyomireview.com/article.php?docid=380 and do a text search for "the most possible extreme of generosity and kindness". there is a partial translation there of the tov halevanon commentary. see it inside the hebrew for more details. at least this shows "perfect" in term of generosity and kindness. but see the hebrew where he explains more. – ray Oct 28 '13 at 13:22
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    I think list questions are not a great fit for this site. The list you're looking for, in particular, is quite long (My first thought was Tehillim 92). – Charles Koppelman Oct 28 '13 at 15:03
  • @CharlesKoppelman Judging by the answers, the list does not look very long :). 92:16 is the only one that fits, and fits quite nicely (at least before I looked at the mefashim). thank you. – gt6989b Oct 28 '13 at 15:08
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    @gt6989b Judging by answers that haven't been written yet seems like an incredibly poor way to evaluate how long they will be. – Double AA Oct 28 '13 at 15:28
  • @DoubleAA in my experience, when something in this forum gets 0 answers (1 if you count CharlesKoppelman's) in a day, it is highly unlikely to get 10... Either way, I was not looking for an exhaustive list, but some ideas, perhaps 3-4 places... – gt6989b Oct 28 '13 at 16:08
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    How about the end of וכל מאמינים (by Yanai the Paytan, circa 7th century): התם, ומתמם עם תמימים. – Fred Oct 28 '13 at 17:08
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    If you're looking for sources in Tanach that HaShem is perfect in deed (e.g. Sh'muel II 22:31; Y'sha'yahu 46:10; B'midbar 11:23) or in knowledge (e.g. Iyov 37:16; Sh'muel I 2:3, see also Radak ad loc.), there is no shortage of examples. If you are looking for quotes from Tanach about the "perfection" of HaShem's intrinsic nature (aside from traits related to His relationship with Creation), you might be more likely to find quotes about how He is inscrutably or unfathomably great, along the lines of הן א-ל שגיא ולא נדע (Iyov 36:26). – Fred Oct 28 '13 at 19:15
  • @Fred thank you. Please write this as an answer, and I'll gladly accept it. Thank you. – gt6989b Oct 28 '13 at 19:23

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