אליגוריות החוקים, ספר ב ו׳Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis, Book II 6
א׳
1[16] What he says in the domain of ethics is to this effect. We often use “τί”(= “what”) for “διὰ τί” (“by reason of what”), as “what (i.e. why) have you bathed?” “What (i.e. ‘why’) are you walking?” “What (i.e. ‘why’) are you conversing?” In all these cases “what” stands for “because of what.” When the prophet says “to see what he would call them” you should understand something equivalent to ‘why the mind would call and invite to it and greet’ each of these objects, whether only for the sake of that which it cannot dispense with, seeing that all that is mortal is necessarily bound up with passions and vices, or also for the sake of what is in excess of reasonable needs; and whether to satisfy the needs of flesh and blood, or because it deems them good and admirable above all things.
ב׳
2[17] For example. A created being cannot but make use of pleasure. But the worthless man will use it as a perfect good, but the man of worth simply as a necessity, remembering that apart from pleasure nothing in mortal kind comes into existence. Again the worthless man accounts the acquisition of wealth a most perfect good; the man of worth regards it as just necessary and serviceable and no more.
ג׳
3[18] No wonder then that God wishes to see and ascertain how the mind invites and welcomes each of these, whether as good, or as indifferent, or as bad but at all events as serviceable. Hence it came about that everything which he called to himself and greeted as living soul, reckoning it equal in worth to the soul, this became the name not only of the thing called but of him who called it. For example, if he welcomed pleasure, he was called pleasure-loving; if desire, desire-ridden; if licence, licentious; if cowardice, cowardly; and so on. For, just as the man whose quality is determined by the virtues is from them called wise or sober-minded or just or brave, so from the vices is he called unjust and foolish and unmanly, whensoever he has invited to himself and given a hearty welcome to the corresponding dispositions.