על הנטיעה י״בConcerning Noah's Work as a Planter 12
א׳
1[46] Such, then, were the trees which He Who alone is wise planted in rational souls. Moses, lamenting over those who had become exiles from the garden of the virtues, implores alike God’s absolute sovereignty and His gracious and gentle powers, that the people endowed with sight may be planted in on the spot whence the earthly mind, called Adam, has been banished.
ב׳
2[47] This is what he says: “Bring them in, plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which is ready, which Thou wroughtest for Thee to dwell in, the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have made ready: the Lord is sovereign for ever and ever” (Exod. 15:17 f.).
ג׳
3[48] So Moses, beyond all others, had most accurately learned that God, by setting the seeds and roots of all things, is the Cause of the greatest of all plants springing up, even this universe. It is at this evidently that he points in the present instance by the words of the Song itself just quoted, by calling the world “the mountain of Thine inheritance,” since that which has been brought into being is, in a peculiar degree, the possession and portion of him who has made it.
ד׳
4[49] So he prays that in this we may be planted. He would not have us become irrational and unruly in our natures. Nay, he would have us comply with the ordering of the All-perfect, and faithfully copying His constant and undeviating course, pursue without stumbling a life of self-mastery: for to attain the power to live as nature bids has been pronounced by the men of old supreme happiness.
ה׳
5[50] And mark how well the epithets that follow harmonize with that which was put first. The world, we read, is God’s house in the realm of sense-perception, prepared and ready for Him. It is a thing wrought, not, as some have fancied, uncreate. It is a “sanctuary,” an outshining of sanctity, so to speak, a copy of the original; since the objects that are beautiful to the eye of sense are images of those in which the understanding recognizes beauty. Lastly, it has been prepared by the “hands” of God, his world-creating powers.
ו׳
6[51] And to the end that none may suppose that the Maker is in need of those whom He has made, Moses will crown his utterance with the point that is vital beyond all others: “reigning for ever and ever.” It is an established principle that a sovereign is dependent on no one, while subjects are in all respects dependent on the sovereign.
ז׳
7[52] Some have maintained that that which is God’s portion, and is spoken of here as such, is that which is good, and that Moses’ prayer in this instance is for the obtaining of the experience and enjoyment thereof. For his prayer runs thus: “Initiate us, the children just beginning to learn, by means of the pronouncements and principles of wisdom, and leave us not ungrounded, but plant us in a high and heavenly doctrine.”
ח׳
8[53] For this is a “portion” best prepared, a “house” most ready, an abode most fitting, which “Thou hast wrought as a Holy Place”; for of things good and holy, O Master, Thou art Maker, as from the corruptible creation come things evil and profane. Reign through the age that has no limit over the soul that implores Thee, never leaving it for one moment without a sovereign Ruler: for never-ceasing slavery under Thee surpasses not freedom only but the highest sovereignty.