My tenth grade student asked:
How can something spiritual create something physical?
How can G-d, a spiritual being, do anything on this world, starting from actual creation of physical man.
That’s the easy part of the question. What your student should of asked is “how can physicality create spirituality as in what we humans are able to achieve.
To answer your question G-d is the essence of both spirituality and physicality and so He has full control over both. G-d has no definition and so we cannot call him a spiritual or physical being. The very premise that the question is built upon is therefore false.
Furthermore, to answer my question as well as an element of yours, physicality and spirituality – both the creations of G-d – are very much intertwined. We humans – possesing both body and soul are walking proof of that. Each one can effect changes in the other.