אליגוריות החוקים, ספר ג נ״בAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis, Book III 52
א׳
1[151] Is it possible, then, that we, tied as we are to a body, should not comply with bodily requirements? How can it be possible? But look. The sacred guide tells the man who feels the pressure of bodily necessity the way to deal with it, namely, to comply with it only so far as he is actually obliged to do so. First he says, “Let there be to thee a place outside the camp” (Deut. 23:12), meaning by “the camp” virtue, in which the soul has pitched its camp. For good sense and indulgence of a bodily necessity cannot occupy the same quarters.
ב׳
2[152] Next he says, “Thou shalt go forth there without.” Why go forth? Because the soul cannot have dealings with any of the body’s friends while it abides with good sense and spends its days in the house of wisdom. For then it is nourished by food more divine, which it finds in all knowledge, and for the sake of this it actually disregards the flesh. For when it has gone forth from the sacred dwellings of virtue, it is then that it turns to material things which treat the body ill and weigh it down. How then shall I deal with them?
ג׳
3[153] “Let there be to thee, he says, a shovel upon thy girdle, and thou shalt dig with it” (Deut. 23:13), that is to say, reason shall be upon the passion digging it out, tucking it up, not suffering it to clothe thee about. For God would have us gird up our passions, not wear them flowing and loose.
ד׳
4[154] So at the crossing over from them, which is called Passover, He bids that their “loins should be girded up” (Exod. 12:11), in other words that their desires should be restrained. Let a shovel then, that is, reason, follow the passion, preventing it from spreading abroad, for by this means we shall comply only with demands which are urgent, but from all that goes beyond this we shall abstain.