על הנטיעה י׳Concerning Noah's Work as a Planter 10
א׳
1[40] A proof of what I have said is the nearness of the garden to the sunrising (Gen. 2:8); for, while folly is a thing sinking, dark, night-bringing, wisdom is verily a thing of sunrise, all radiancy and brightness. And even as the sun, when it comes up, fills all the circle of heaven with light, even so do the rays of virtue, when they have shone out, cause the whole region of the understanding to be flooded with pure brilliancy.
ב׳
2[41] Now, whereas man’s possessions have animals of great ferocity to watch and guard them against being attacked and overrun, the possessions of God are guarded by rational beings: for it says, “He stationed there the man whom He had fashioned,” that is to say, the trainings in and exercises of the virtues belong to rational beings only.
ג׳
3[42] This they received at the hands of God, as a pre-eminent privilege above the lives of the irrational creatures. And that is why it is stated in the most vivid manner possible that He set the mind, which is the real man in us, amid holiest shoots and growths of noble character, since among beings void of understanding there is not one capable of tilling virtues, for they are by nature utterly incompetent to apprehend these.