אליגוריות החוקים, ספר ב כ״בAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis, Book II 22
א׳
1[87] Note now a difference between him who turns aside in the wilderness and him who does so in Egypt. The one has experience of deadly serpents, that is to say insatiable pleasures inflicting death; but the disciplined one is only bitten and scattered, not done to death, by pleasure. And while the one is cured by self-mastery, even the brazen serpent made by the wise Moses, the other is caused by God to drink a draught most excellent, even wisdom out of the fountain which He drew out from His own wisdom.
ב׳
2[88] Not even from Moses, most beloved of God, does Pleasure, the serpent-like one, refrain, but this is what we read: “If therefore they say, ‘God has not appeared to thee,’ and believe me not and hearken not to my voice, what shall I say to them? And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘What is that in thine hand?’ And he said, ‘A rod.’ And He said, ‘Cast it upon the ground.’ And he cast it upon the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Stretch forth thine hand and lay hold of its tail’ (and he stretched forth his hand and took hold of its tail, and it became a rod in his hand): that they may believe thee” (Exod. 4:1 ff.).
ג׳
3[89] How should one come to believe God? By learning that all other things change but He is unchangeable. Therefore God asks the wise man what there is in his hand or in the active life of his soul, for the hand represents activity; and he answers, “Schooling,” giving it the name of a rod. So Jacob also, the supplanter of the passions, says, “For in my rod I crossed this Jordan” (Gen. 32:10). The meaning of Jordan is “descent” or “coming down.” And to the nature that is down below, earthly, corruptible, belongs all that is done under the impulse of vice and passion. Over these Mind, the disciplined One, crosses in schooling himself. To take the words to mean that he crossed the river with a staff in his hand would be tame.