אליגוריות החוקים, ספר ב כ״וAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis, Book II 26
א׳
1[103] But we must inquire why, whereas Jacob says, “the horseman shall fall backwards” (Gen. 49:17), Moses sings of the drowning of horse and rider. We must remark then, that, whereas he that is to perish by drowning is the Egyptian character, which, even if it flees, flees under the water, that is, under the current of the passions; the horseman who falls backwards does not belong to the lovers of the passions. A proof of this is that he is called “horseman,” whereas the other is called “rider.”
ב׳
2[104] A horseman’s business is to subdue his horse and use the bit when it disregards the rein, whereas a rider’s business is to be carried wherever the animal takes him. On the sea, too, the helmsman’s business is to guide the boat and keep it upright and in its course, but it is for the passenger to experience all that the ship undergoes. Accordingly the horseman who subdues the passions is not drowned but, dismounting from them, awaits the salvation that comes from the Master.
ג׳
3[105] Now the sacred word in Leviticus directs them to feed “on creeping things that go upon all four, which have legs above their feet, so as to leap with them” (Lev. 11:21). Such are the locust, the wild locust, the grasshopper, and in the fourth place the cricket. And this is as it should be. For if serpentlike pleasure is a thing un-nourishing and injurious, self-mastery, the nature that is in conflict with pleasure, must be wholesome and full of nourishment.
ד׳
4[106] Do thou also contend, O my mind, against all passion and above all against pleasure, for indeed “the serpent is the most subtle of all beasts upon the earth, which the Lord God made” (Gen. 3:1);
ה׳
5[107] for pleasure is the most cunning of all things. Why is this? Because all things are enthralled to pleasure, and the life of bad men is under the dominion of pleasure. The things that yield pleasure are obtained by means of cunning of every kind; gold, silver, glory, honours, offices, the materials of objects of sense, the mechanical arts, and all other arts in great variety that minister to pleasure. It is for the sake of pleasure that we do wrong, and wrong deeds are ever associated with desperate cunning.
ו׳
6[108] Therefore set judgement, the serpent-fighter, against it, and contend to the end in this noblest contest, and strive earnestly, by defeating pleasure that conquers all others, to win the noble and glorious crown, which no human assembly has ever bestowed.