“In contrast to Western ideas, matter, where things take place, is higher than reason.
A Sage once said that all the higher worlds, all the transcendent and abstract things, have no value compared to the world of action.
The world of action is the most perfect form of the Revelation of God.
It is said, ‘The existence of the material world is the substance of the Divine.’
In other words, the highest values are found within matter, in the material world.
The world of matter is both the lowest world, because it is mute, and the highest, because is the supreme expression of God’s Hokhmah, Wisdom…
…This is what happened on Mount Sinai.
The Israelites say ‘do’ before they speak, and ‘hear’ before they understand, because they immediately grasp that the essence of the revelation is action.”
From The Seven Lights, p. 229, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz