The Aleph

The Aleph is a place of sight, a place the narrator describes, allows the viewer to see the entirety of the infinite universes at once. From the description of this one place, the narrator exposes the reader to many binaries, the most prominent being the distinction between reality and fantasy. In the story this binary is pushed to the extreme, often leaving the reader unable to distinguish the two. The line between fantasy and reality is distorted throughout the story, and they often appear to be molding into each other.
The Aleph encompasses the concept of infinity, from it one is able to the entirety of the universe and all their parallels at once. The viewer of the Aleph is not only able to see every point in the universe simultaneously, he also has the ability to see both the past and the present, creating yet another binary. The ability to see the universe at once creates unlimited amounts of binaries, Borge describes seeing both delightful and horrible acts, he saw both night and day, the infinitely small and the inconceivably large. The reality of the Aleph is brought into question throughout the story, however, even if it were to exit it would impossible to describe, for one is only able to write one dimensionally on a sheet of paper, thus unable to describe the four dimensional scenario (time being the fourth dimension).
Within the Aleph one is able to see the intangible. One sees concepts, whether they are real or artificial is unclear, yet one is able understand what he sees. The idea of fantasy vs. reality is often associated with the concepts of true vs. false. The presence of the Aleph is meant to serve as a place where one may be exposed to the binaries, where one may recognize the concepts. The concept of, for instance, infinity is what is meant to be understood. For a concept, whether what one sees is "real" or not does not matter, one still understands the idea and the idea of "true" vs, false is irrevalent, or in plato's terms "the shadow of the ideal".