אליגוריות החוקים, ספר ג ס״חAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis, Book III 68
א׳
1[189] The word “shall watch” has two meanings, one like “shall guard and preserve,” the other equivalent to “shall watch for to destroy.” Now the mind must needs be either bad or good. The foolish mind will show itself a guardian and steward of pleasure, seeing that its delight is in pleasure; but the good mind will prove its enemy, watching eagerly for the moment when it shall set upon it and achieve its utter destruction. And mark this: Pleasure on the other hand watches over and preserves the procedure of the foolish mind, but endeavours to break up and destroy the way of life of the wise mind, holding that the latter is planning her ruin, while the former is devising the best means to preserve her.
ב׳
2[190] But in spite of her expecting to throw and cheat the good mind, she shall herself be thrown by Jacob who is practised in wrestling, not the bodily wrestling but that in which the soul engages against dispositions that are her antagonists, fighting as she does with passions and wickednesses. And Jacob shall not let go the heel of his adversary, passion, till it has given in, and acknowledged that it has been twice thrown and vanquished, both in the matter of the birthright and in the blessing. For says Esau, “Rightly was his name called Jacob, for he hath supplanted me twice already; then he took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing” (Gen. 27:36).
ג׳
3[191] The bad man regards bodily things as more worshipful, the good man the things of the soul, as they are in reality, not in age but in value and dignity more worshipful, and really first, as is a magistrate in a city; and it is the soul that is sovereign over our composite being.