The Footprint

Imagine walking alone along a beach in the early morning. The tide has receded, leaving the sand smooth and undisturbed except for a single human footprint. You cannot see, hear, or touch the person who made it. Nevertheless, you have little difficulty inferring that someone has been there. The footprint is observable evidence of an unseen person. We do not ordinarily assume that it arose spontaneously or without explanation. Rather, we infer a cause from an observable effect.

Now consider the universe itself.

Look at the expanse of the ocean, the vastness of the sky, the rising or setting sun. Then consider even a single grain of sand. What appears simple to the naked eye reveals, at microscopic and subatomic levels, an intricate system of matter, energy, fields, and forces governed by remarkably consistent mathematical relationships.

Science has demonstrated remarkable power in describing these phenomena. It can investigate the laws governing matter, energy, assess physical forces, and voice advanced accounts of cosmic evolution. Yet describing how the universe developed is not necessarily answering the more fundamental question of why it exists at all.

Why is there something rather than nothing?

This question was asked by the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who argued that everything that exists must have a sufficient reason for its existence. The universe, he reasoned, cannot explain itself. The explanations must lead to a necessary being whose existence depends on nothing else, something outside of everything we comprehend. Leibniz identified that ultimate source of existence as God.

This is not a question of scientific proof in the conventional empirical sense. God is not a physical object that can be placed under a microscope or detected by a telescope. Rather, the argument is philosophical: can the universe account for its own existence, or does its existence point beyond itself to a necessary cause?

The Torah presents its answer with extraordinary economy:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

—Genesis 1:1

To borrow a phrase from the great Rabbi Hillel: “The rest is commentary. Go and learn.”

The opening verse of Genesis should not be mistaken for a modern scientific account of cosmological development. Its purpose is more deep-seated, fundamental. It makes a philosophical claim: the universe is created reality, not something self-originating, self-explanatory, or inevitable. Its existence depends upon something beyond itself.

It was created; it did not bring itself into existence.

Here the footprint analogy becomes enlightening.

The footprint is not the person who made it. It does not contain that person or specify a complete description of their identity. Yet it is an observable effect from which the presence of an unseen cause can be inferred.

Likewise, the universe is not God. But its existence, order, and intelligibility constitute something analogous to a cosmic footprint: an effect that, for the person of faith, points beyond itself.

A finite human being can no more discern an infinite God, than a microscope can examine itself.

One traditional Jewish interpretation of the biblical account of Moses encountering God is that Moses could not see God’s face—that is, grasp God’s essence—but could see God’s back. The imagery suggests that we may recognize the Divine through its effects, by following in the footsteps of God’s actions rather than comprehending God’s essence directly.

We may perceive God’s presence through creation, moral experience, revelation, and the consequences of Divine action without fully understanding the infinite. Our limitations are profound. Just as a two-year-old cannot comprehend Einstein’s theory of relativity or quantum mechanics, the human mind is incapable of grasping the full nature of an infinite Creator.

There is, however, an important distinction between the footprint on the beach and the universe itself. A footprint provides direct evidence that someone was present. The existence of the universe raises a more profound philosophical question about ultimate explanation. The inference to God is therefore a matter of philosophical argument and theology, rather than an established conclusion of empirical science.

Yet that distinction does not diminish the significance of the question — why does anything exist at all?

The footprint is not the person, but it points to a presence.

So, too, the universe is not God, but it may be understood as the enduring imprint of a Creator whose presence is inferred not through direct physical observation, but through the profound reality that something exists rather than nothing. Like the footprint in the sand, the universe invites us to consider a source beyond what we can see, measure, or fully comprehend.

Faith begins with the recognition that some things lie beyond the reach of reason and that, no matter how brilliant we may be, human understanding has its limits. As the Psalmist writes, “The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth He gave to the children of man” (Psalm 115:16).

God remains the incomprehensible Creator, while humanity has been entrusted with the freedom and responsibility to shape life on earth and bring it closer to the world as God intends it to be.