אליגוריות החוקים, ספר א כ״טAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis, Book I 29
א׳
1[90] “And the Lord God commanded Adam saying: From every tree that is in the garden thou shalt feedingly eat, but of the tree of knowing good and evil ye shall not eat of it: and in the day that ye eat of it ye shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16, 17).
ב׳
2We must raise the question what Adam He commands and who this is; for the writer has not mentioned him before, but has named him now for the first time. Perchance, then, he means to give us the name of the man that was moulded. “Call him earth” he says, for that is the meaning of “Adam,” so that when you hear the word “Adam,” you must make up your mind that it is the earthly and perishable mind; for the mind that was made after the image is not earthly but heavenly.
ג׳
3[91] And we must inquire why when assigning their names to all the other creatures Adam did not assign one to himself. What, then, are we to say? The mind that is in each one of us can apprehend other objects, but is incapable of knowing itself. For just as the eye sees other objects but does not see itself, so the mind too perceives other objects, but does not apprehend itself. Can it say what it is and of what kind, breath or blood or fire or air or anything else? Can it even say that it is a body or else that it is incorporeal? Are not they simpletons, then, who inquire about God’s substance? For how should those, who know not the substance of their own soul, have accurate ideas about the soul of the universe? For we may conceive of God as the soul of the universe.