אליגוריות החוקים, ספר ג ו׳Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis, Book III 6
א׳
1[18] Now(let us ask) why, as though Jacob were not aware that Laban was a Syrian, does he say, “Jacob kept Laban the Syrian in the dark”? In this likewise there is a point not without pertinence. For “Syria” means “Highlands.” Jacob, therefore, the mind in training, when he sees passion grovelling low before him, awaits its onset calculating that he will master it by force, but when it is seen to be lofty, stately, weighty, the first to run away is the mind in training, followed by all his belongings, being portions of his discipline, readings, ponderings, acts of worship, and of remembrance of noble souls, self-control, discharge of daily duties; he crosses the river of objects of sense, that swamps and drowns the soul under the flood of the passions, and, when he has crossed it, sets his face for the lofty high-land, the principle of perfect virtue:
ב׳
2[19] “for he set his face towards the mountain of Gilead.” The meaning of this name is “migration of witness”; for God caused the soul to migrate from the passions that are represented by Laban, and bore witness to it how greatly to its advantage and benefit its removal was, and led it on away from the evil things that render the soul low and grovelling up to the height and greatness of virtue.
ג׳
3[20] For this reason Laban, the friend of the senses and the man whose actions are regulated by them and not by the mind, is vexed, and pursues him, and says, “Why didst thou run away secretly” (Gen. 31:26), but didst not remain in the company of bodily enjoyment and of the teaching that gives the preference to bodily and external good things? But in addition to fleeing from this view of life, thou didst carry off my soundness of sense as well, Leah and Rachel to wit. For these, while they remained with the soul, produced in it sound sense, but when they removed elsewhither they left behind to it ignorance and indiscipline. This is why he adds the words “thou didst rob me” (ibid.), that is, didst steal my good sense.