על החלומות, ספר אOn Dreams, Book I
א׳
1[1] The treatise before this one embraced that first class of heaven-sent dreams, in which, as we said, the Deity of His own motion sends to us the visions which are presented to us in sleep. In the present treatise we shall, to the best of our ability, bring before our readers dreams which find their right place under our second head.
ב׳
2[2] The second kind of dreams is that in which our own mind, moving out of itself together with the Mind of the Universe, seems to be possessed and God-inspired, and so capable of receiving some foretaste and foreknowledge of things to come.
ג׳
3The first dream belonging to the class thus indicated is that which appeared to the dreamer on the stairway of Heaven:
ד׳
4[3] “And he dreamed, and behold a stairway set up on the earth, of which the top reached to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it. And the Lord stood firmly on it; and He said, ‘I am the God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac; fear not; the land whereon thou sleepest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the sand of the earth, and shall spread abroad to the west and the south and the north and the east; and in thee shall be blessed all the tribes of the earth, and in thy seed. And, behold, I am with thee, guarding thee in every way by which thou goest, and will bring thee back into this land, for I will by no means forsake thee, until I have done all things whatsoever I have spoken unto thee’ ” (Gen. 28:12–15).
ה׳
5[4] The vision is introduced by a prefatory passage necessary for its understanding, and if we study this in detail we shall perhaps be able easily to grasp the meaning of the vision. What then is this prefatory passage? It runs thus: “And Jacob went out from the Well of the Oath, and made his journey to Haran; and he met with a place; for the sun set; and he took one from the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and he slept in that place” (ibid. 10 f.); and then at once follows the dream.
ו׳
6[5] It is worth while, then, at the outset to investigate these three points, firstly, what “the Well of the Oath” is and why it was so called; secondly, what “Haran” is, and why it is that on coming out from the Well aforesaid he comes at once to Haran; thirdly, what “the place” is, and why, when he reaches it, the sun sets, and he himself goes to sleep.
ז׳
7[6] Let us consider the first to begin with. To me, then, the Well seems to be a symbol of knowledge; for the nature of knowledge is to be very deep, not superficial; it does not display itself openly, but loves to hide itself in secrecy; it is discovered not easily but with difficulty and with much labour. And all this may be seen not only in branches of knowledge which contain a whole multitude of important problems, but in the simplest studies as well.
ח׳
8[7] Just choose any art you please, not the best of them I beg of you, but the most ignoble of them all, which perhaps no free man whatever brought up in a city would voluntarily practise, and even in the country a servant who has to grapple with a harsh and ill-conditioned master, who forces him to many a distasteful task, would only undertake reluctantly.
ט׳
9[8] For it will be found to be not a simple but a subtle matter, one “which needs both hands to take it,” hard to discover and hard to master, a foe to hesitation and negligence and indifference, demanding abundance of zest and enthusiasm, of hard toil and anxious thought.
י׳
10This is why the diggers of this well say that they found no water in it (Gen. 26:32), inasmuch as the ends pursued in the different branches of knowledge prove to be not only hard to reach, but absolutely beyond finding.
י״א
11[9] That is why one man is a better scholar or geometrician than another, because no limit can be set to the extensions and enlargements of his subject in all directions. For what still remains is always waiting to engage us in fuller force than what we have already learned; so that the man who is supposed to have reached the very end of knowledge, is considered in the judgement of another to have come half way; while if Truth give her verdict, he is pronounced to be just beginning.
י״ב
12[10] For “life is short,” said one, “and art is long” ; and he best apprehends its greatness who honestly sounds its depths, and digs it like a well.
י״ג
13So there is a story that a grey-haired man of great age shed tears when dying, not in any cowardly fear of death, but by reason of his yearning for education, and the thought that he is now first entering upon it, when he takes his final leave of it.
י״ד
14[11] For the soul is just blossoming into knowledge, when the body’s bloom is withering away through the passing of years. So it is a hard fate to be tripped up by the heels before one has attained the prime of youthful strength to apprehend things more accurately. This experience is common to all who love to learn, who see new results of thought and study rise like a shining light in addition to the old. Many of these does the soul, if it be not cursed with barrenness, bring forth; many does Nature of herself shew to those whose understanding is sharp-sighted, without giving any sign beforehand of their coming.
ט״ו
15So then the well of knowledge, the well without limit or ending, has been shewn to be such as I have described.
ט״ז
16[12] Why it was named “Oath” I must now tell you. Matters that are in doubt are decided by an oath, insecure things made secure, assurance given to that which lacked it. From this we conclude that there is nothing which can be asserted with greater certainty than that wisdom is essentially without end or limit.
י״ז
17[13] While then it is well to agree with one who discourses on these truths even if he takes no oath, let anyone who is not very prone to assent do so when the speaker is on his oath. And no one need shrink from taking such an oath, for he may rest assured that his name will appear on the register of those who have sworn truly.
י״ח
18[14] Enough on these points. The next thing to inquire is why, when four wells are dug by Abraham and Isaac and those about them (Gen. 21:25, 26:19–23), the fourth and last received as its name “Oath.”
י״ט
19[15] Probably Moses wishes to shew us allegorically that while both the constituents of which the universe is composed, and those from which we ourselves were moulded and so fashioned into human shape, are four in number, three of them are such as can in one way or another be apprehended, but the fourth is universally held to be beyond our powers of apprehension.
כ׳
20[16] In the world, then, we find the constituents that make up the whole to be four, earth, water, air, heaven. To three of these properties have been allotted, the discovery of which may be difficult, but is not wholly impossible.
כ״א
21[17] For, as regards earth, we perceive that it is a body, heavy, indissoluble, firm, cut up into mountain-ranges and level plains, divided by rivers and sea, so that parts of it are islands, part continents; that some of it has a light thin soil, some of it a deep soil; some of it rough, stiff, stony, and altogether barren, some level and soft and very fertile. These and a thousand other points we apprehend.
כ״ב
22[18] As to water again, we perceive that it has several of the properties just enumerated in common with land, and others peculiar to itself; for some of it is sweet, some brackish, other parts marked by other differences; some water is fit to drink, other water unfit. We know too it has not either of these properties alike for all; one kind of water is drinkable by some but not by others, and what is undrinkable by some is quite drinkable by others; and that some is by nature cold, some by nature hot:
כ״ג
23[19] for there are a thousand springs, in many places giving forth boiling water, and that not only on land, but in the sea. Yes, there have before now appeared veins emitting boiling water in mid ocean, which all the force of the surrounding seas pouring over them from time immemorial has been powerless to quench or even in any measure to check.
כ״ד
24[20] Again we perceive that the air has a nature which gives way to the pressure of the objects around it; that it is the instrument of life, of breathing, of sight, hearing and the other senses; that it admits of density and rarity, of motion and stillness, that it undergoes all kinds of change; that it is the source of winter and summer, and of the autumn and spring seasons, that is, of the constituent parts that fix the limits of the year’s cycle.
כ״ה
25[21] All these we perceive; but heaven has sent to us no sure indication of its nature, but keeps it beyond our comprehension. For what can we say? That it is a fixed mass of crystal, as some have thought? Or that it is absolutely pure fire? Or that it is a fifth substance, circular in movement, with no part in the four elements? Again, we ask, has the fixed and outmost sphere upward-reaching depth, or is it nothing but a superficies, without depth, resembling plane geometrical figures?
כ״ו
26[22] Again: are the stars lumps of earth full of fire? Some people have declared them to be dells and glades and masses of fiery metal, for which they themselves deserve a prison and mill-house, in which such instruments are kept to punish impiety. Or are the stars an unbroken, and, as one has said, “close” harmony, indissoluble compresses of ether? Are they living and intelligent, or devoid of intelligence and conscious life? Are their motions determined by choice or simply by necessity?
כ״ז
27[23] Does the moon contribute a light of its own or a borrowed light caused by the rays of the sun shining on it? Or is it neither the one nor the other by itself absolutely, but the combined result of both, a mixture such as we might expect from a fire partly its own, partly borrowed? Yes, all these and suchlike points pertaining to heaven, that fourth and best cosmic substance, are obscure and beyond our apprehension, based on guess-work and conjecture, not on the solid reasoning of truth;
כ״ח
28[24] so much so that one may confidently take one’s oath that the day will never come when any mortal shall be competent to arrive at a clear solution of any of these problems. This is why the fourth and waterless well was named “Oath,” being the endless and altogether baffling quest of the fourth cosmic region, heaven.
כ״ט
29[25] Let us see in what way that which occupies the fourth place in ourselves too is of such a nature as to be eminently and peculiarly incomprehensible. The factors in us of highest significance are four, body, sense-perception, speech, mind. Three of these are not obscure in all their aspects, but contain in themselves some indications by which they can be understood.
ל׳
30[26] What do I mean? We know that the body is threefold in dimensions and sixfold in movements, having three dimensions, length, depth, breadth, and twice as many, namely six, movements, upward, downward, to the right, to the left, forward, backward. Nor are we ignorant that it is a vessel for the soul, and we are perfectly aware that it comes to maturity, wears out, grows old, dies, is dissolved.
ל״א
31[27] With respect to sense-perception, also, we are not wholly dim-sighted, and blind, but we are able to say that it is divided into five parts, and that each part has its special organs fashioned by Nature, eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, nostrils for smelling, and for the others the organs in which they find their fit place, and that they are understanding’s messengers, bringing to it reports of colours, forms, sounds, distinct scents and savours, in a word, of material substances and their qualities, and that they are bodyguards of the soul, making known all that they have seen or heard. And should any hurtful thing approach from without, they are aware of it beforehand, and on their guard against it, lest it should stealthily make its way in and cause incurable damage to their mistress.
ל״ב
32[28] Sound, too, does not entirely elude our discernment. We know that one sound is shrill, another deep, one tuneful and melodious, another discordant and most unmusical, and again, one louder and another softer. They differ also in countless other respects, in genera, tone colours, intervals, conjunct or disjunct systems, and harmonies of the fourth, the fifth, the octave.
ל״ג
33[29] In articulate sound, moreover, an advantage possessed by man alone of all living creatures, there are particulars of which we are aware; as, for example, that it is sent up from the understanding, that it is in the mouth that it acquires articulation, that it is the beat or stroke of the tongue that imparts articulation and speech to the tension of the voice, but does not produce simply just an idle sound and unshapen noise, since it holds to the suggesting mind the office of its herald and interpreter.
ל״ד
34[30] Is, then, the fourth element in ourselves, the dominant mind, capable of being comprehended? By no means. For what do we suppose it to be essentially? Breath or blood or body in general? Nay, we must pronounce it no body but incorporeal. Do we regard it as boundary-line, or form, or number, or continuity, or harmony, or what amongst all that exists?
ל״ה
35[31] At our birth is it at once introduced into us from without? Or does the air which envelops it impart intense hardness to the warm nature within us, such as the red-hot iron receives when plunged at the smithy into cold water? The name of “soul” would seem to have been given to it owing to the “cooling” which it thus undergoes. Again: when we die, is it quenched and does it share the decay of our bodies, or live on for a considerable time, or is it wholly imperishable?
ל״ו
36[32] And where in the body has the mind made its lair? Has it had a dwelling assigned to it? Some have regarded the head, our body’s citadel, as its hallowed shrine, since it is about the head that the senses have their station, and it seems natural to them that they should be posted there, like bodyguards to some mighty monarch. Others contend pertinaciously for their conviction that the heart is the shrine in which it is carried.
ל״ז
37[33] So in every case it is the fourth of the series that is beyond comprehension. In the universe it is the heaven in contrast with the nature of air and earth and water; in man it is mind over against the body, and sense-preception, and the speech which gives expression to thought. It may well be that it is for this reason that the fourth year is designated in the sacred documents “holy and for praise ” (Lev. 19:24);
ל״ח
38[34] for among created things, that which is holy is, in the universe, the heavens, in which natures imperishable and enduring through long ages have their orbits; in man it is mind, a fragment of the Deity, as the words of Moses in particular bear witness, “He breathed into his face a breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).
ל״ט
39[35] And each of these appears to me to be correctly spoken of as “for praise.” For it is in the heaven and in the mind that capacity resides to set forth in solemn strains hymns of praise and blessing in honour of the Father who is the author of our being. For man is the recipient of a privilege which gives him distinction beyond other living creatures, that, namely, of worshipping Him that IS; while the heaven is ever melodious,
מ׳
40[36] producing, as the heavenly bodies go through their movements, the full and perfect harmony. If the sound of it ever reached our ears, there would be produced irrepressible yearnings, frantic longings, wild ceaseless passionate desires, compelling to abstain even from necessary food, for no longer should we take in nourishment from meat and drink through the throat after the fashion of mortals, but, as beings awaiting immortality, from inspired strains of perfect melody coming to us through our ears. To such strains it is said that Moses was listening, when, having laid aside his body, for forty days and as many nights he touched neither bread nor water at all (Ex. 24:18).
מ״א
41[37] It seems, then, that the heaven, the original archetype of all musical instruments, was tuned with consummate skill for no other purpose than that the hymns sung in honour of the Universal Father may have a musical accompaniment.
מ״ב
42And further we hear of Leah or Virtue being no longer capable of bearing children after the birth of her fourth son. She stayed, or rather was stayed, from childbirth, for she found, I imagine, all giving birth on her part dried up and unproductive, when she had put forth the bloom of “Judah,” or Confession of thankfulness, which is the perfect fruit.
מ״ג
43[38] To say that she “stood still from bearing” (Gen. 29:35) differs not at all from saying that the servants of Isaac found no water in the fourth well (Gen. 26:32), since what is brought out by each of the figures is that all things are athirst for God, through Whom the birth of things, and their food when born, is watered into fruitfulness.
מ״ד
44[39] It may be that men of narrow citizenship will suppose that the lawgiver delivers this very full discourse about digging wells, but those who are on the roll of a greater country, even this whole world, men of higher thought and feeling, will be quite sure that the four things propounded as a subject of inquiry to the open-eyed lovers of contemplation are not four wells, but the four parts of this universe, land, water, air, heavens.
מ״ה
45[40] On each of these they bring to bear powers of thought of finest perfection, and find in three of them certain things within their comprehension, and to these discoveries of theirs they give three names, “injustice,” “enmity,” “spaciousness” (Gen. 26:20 ff.). In the fourth, the heavens, as we pointed out not long ago, they find nothing whatever comprehensible. For the fourth well is found to be dry and waterless, and is entitled “oath” for the reason which has been mentioned.
מ״ו
46[41] Let us now examine the following context, and inquire what Haran is and why one who goes away from the well comes to it (Gen. 28:10). Haran is, then, as it seems to me, a sort of mother-city of the senses. For it is rendered sometimes “dug,” sometimes “holes,” one thing being signified by both words.
מ״ז
47[42] For our body has after a fashion been dug out to make places for the organs of the senses, and each of the organs has been constituted a kind of “dug-out” of each sense, which nature provides for its lair. Whenever, therefore, a man has put out from the well which is called “Oath,” as it were from a port, of necessity he forthwith arrives at Haran. For the man who sets forth on a journey from the place of knowledge, boundless and illimitable in its vastness, needs no escorting guides, but is without fail received by the senses.
מ״ח
48[43] For our soul moves often by itself, stripping itself of the entire encumbrance of the body and escaping from the noisy pack of the senses, and often again when clad in these wrappings. What is apprehensible by intellect only is the lot of its unclad movement, while to that accompanied by the body fall the objects of sense-perception.
מ״ט
49[44] If therefore a man is absolutely incapable of holding intercourse with the understanding by itself, he wins in sense-perception a second-best refuge, and a man who has been balked of the things of the intellect is forthwith swept down to those of sense-perception. For those who have failed to make a good voyage under the sails of the sovereign mind can always fall back upon the oars of sense-perception.
נ׳
50[45] But it is an excellent course even when you have fallen into this plight not to grow old and live your life in it, but feeling that you are spending your days in a foreign country as sojourners to be ever seeking for removal and return to the land of your fathers. For it is Laban, a man without knowledge of species or genus or archetypal form, or conception or of any whatever of the objects of solely intellectual apprehension, but dependent wholly on things patent and palpable, which are cognizable by seeing and hearing and the powers akin to them,—he it is that has been deemed worthy of having Haran for his country, in which Jacob the lover of virtue dwells as in a foreign land for a little while, with his mind ever set on the return to his home.
נ״א
51[46] We recognize this in the words spoken to him by Rebecca, or Patience, his mother: “Be up and off,” she says, “to Haran to my brother Laban, and dwell with him for some days” (Gen. 27:43 f.). Do you mark, then, that the Practiser does not brook to spend a lifetime in the territory of the senses, but a few days and a short time in compliance with the necessities of the body to which he is tied, but that it is in the city discerned by the intellect that a life-long enduring is in store for him?
נ״ב
52[47] Owing to this, as it seems to me, the grandfather also of his knowledge, called Abraham, did not brook a prolonged stay in Haran. For we read “Abraham was seventy-five years old when he went forth from Haran” (Gen. 12:4), although his father lived there until his death. His father’s name was “Terah,” which means “scent-exploring.”
נ״ג
53[48] Thus it is expressed in plain words in the sacred records that “Terah died in Haran” (Gen. 11:32): for he was there as a spy or explorer of virtue, not as a holder of its franchise, and he had recourse to scents, not to enjoyment of nourishing foods, not being capable as yet of being filled with sound sense, nay, not even of tasting it, but simply and solely of smelling it.
נ״ד
54[49] For just as we are told that hounds used in the chase have by nature the sense of smell especially keen, so that by following the scent they can track out and find the dead bodies of wild animals at the greatest distance, in the same way does the man who is enamoured of discipline follow the path of the sweet effluvium given forth by justice and other virtues. Fain would he reach them, so wondrously delicious is the fragrance they give forth, but since he cannot, he turns his baffled head this way and that, and snuffs, for he can do no more, at the exhalation of nobility, the holiest of meats : for he does not deny that he is greedy of knowledge and sound sense.
נ״ה
55[50] Blessed indeed are those to whom it is granted to have joy of the love-charms of wisdom, and to banquet on the truths she has discovered, and after revelling in these delights still to be athirst, bringing a craving for knowledge which knows no fullness nor satiety.
נ״ו
56[51] But those will carry off the second prize, to whom it was given not indeed to win enjoyment of the holy table but to fill their souls with the steam of its viands: for these will be quickened and enkindled with breaths of virtue, even as invalids, who are enfeebled because they cannot take nourishment, inhale the reviving preparations which the schools of physicians make up and have ready as effective remedies for faintness.
נ״ז
57[52] The information that Terah left the land of Chaldaea and migrated to Haran, taking with him his son Abraham and his kindred, is given us not with the object that we may learn as from a writer of history, that certain people became emigrants, leaving the land of their ancestors, and making a foreign land their home and country, but that a lesson well suited to man and of great service to human life may not be neglected.
נ״ח
58[53] What is this lesson? The Chaldaeans are astronomers, while the citizens of Haran busy themselves with the place of the senses. Accordingly Holy Writ addresses to the explorer of the facts of nature certain questions—“Why do you carry on investigations about the sun, as to whether it is a foot indiameter, whether it is larger than the whole earth, whether it is many times its size ? And about the illuminations of the moon, whether it has a borrowed light, or whether it employs one entirely its own? And why do you search into the nature of the other heavenly bodies, or into their revolutions or the ways in which they affect each other and affect earthly things?
נ״ט
59[54] And why, treading as you do on earth, do you leap over the clouds? And why do you say that you are able to lay hold of what is in the upper air, when you are rooted to the ground? Why do you venture to determine the indeterminate? And why are you so busy with what you ought to leave alone, the things above? And why do you extend even to the heavens your learned ingenuity? Why do you take up astronomy and pay such full and minute attention to the higher regions? Mark, my friend, not what is above and beyond your reach but what is close to yourself, or rather make yourself the object of your impartial scrutiny.
ס׳
60[55] What form, then, will your scrutiny take? Go in spirit to Haran, ‘excavated’ land, the openings and cavities of the body, and hold an inspection of eyes, ears, nostrils, and the other organs of sense, and engage in a course of philosophy most vital and most fitting to a human being. Try to find out what sight is, what hearing is, what taste, smell, touch are: in a word what sense-perception is. Next, ask what it is to see and how you see, what it is to hear and how you hear, what it is to smell or taste or handle, and how each function is habitually performed.
ס״א
61[56] But before you have made a thorough investigation into your own tenement, is it not an excess of madness to examine that of the universe? And there is a weightier charge which I do not as yet lay upon you, namely to see your own soul and the mind of which you think so proudly: I say ‘see,’ for to comprehend it you will never be able.
ס״ב
62[57] Go to! Mount to heaven and brag of what you see there, you who have not yet attained to the knowledge of that of which the poet speaks in the line
ס״ג
63All that existeth of good and of ill in the halls of thy homestead.” But bring the explorer down from heaven and away from these researches draw the “Know thyself,” and then lavish the same careful toil on this too, in order that you may enjoy the happiness proper to man.
ס״ד
64[58] This character Hebrews call “Terah,” Greeks “Socrates.” For they say that “Know thyself” was likewise the theme of life-long pondering to Socrates, and that his philosophy was concerned exclusively with his own self. Socrates, however, was a human being, while Terah was self-knowledge itself, a way of thinking set before us as a tree of great luxuriance, to the end that lovers of virtue might find it easy, as they pluck the fruit of moral knowledge, to take their fill of nourishment saving and most sweet.
ס״ה
65[59] Such do we find those to be whose part it is to explore good sense: but more perfect than theirs is the nature with which those are endowed who train themselves to engage in the contest for it. These, when they have thoroughly learned in all its details the whole study of the sense-perceptions, claim it as their prerogative to advance to some other greater object of contemplation, leaving behind them those lurking-places of sense-perception, to which the name of Haran is given.
ס״ו
66[60] Among these is Abraham who gained much progress and improvement towards the acquisition of the highest knowledge: for when most he knew himself, then most did he despair of himself, in order that he might attain to an exact knowledge of Him Who in reality IS. And this is nature’s law: he who has thoroughly comprehended himself, thoroughly despairs of himself self, having as a step to this ascertained the nothingness in all respects of created being. And the man who has despaired of himself is beginning to know Him that IS.
ס״ז
67[61] What Haran is and why the man who leaves the Well of the Oath comes to it, has been made evident. We must consider the point which naturally comes next, our third point, namely what the place is which he lights upon or meets, for we read “he met a place” (Gen. 28:11).
ס״ח
68[62] Now “place” has a threefold meaning, firstly that of a space filled by a material form, secondly that of the Divine Word, which God Himself has completely filled throughout with incorporeal potencies; for “they saw,” says Moses, “the place where the God of Israel stood” (Ex. 24:10). Only in this place did he permit them to sacrifice, forbidding them to do so elsewhere: for they were expressly bidden to go up “to the place which the Lord God shall choose” (Deut. 12:5), and there to sacrifice “the whole burnt offerings and the peace offerings” (Ex. 20:24) and to offer the other pure sacrifices.
ס״ט
69[63] There is a third signification, in keeping with which God Himself is called a place, by reason of His containing things, and being contained by nothing whatever, and being a place for all to flee into, and because He is Himself the space which holds Him; for He is that which He Himself has occupied, and naught encloses Him but Himself.
ע׳
70[64] I, mark you, am not a place, but in a place; and each thing likewise that exists; for that which is contained is different from that which contains it, and the Deity, being contained by nothing, is of necessity Itself Its own place.
ע״א
71Witness is borne to what I am saying by this oracle delivered in Abraham’s case: “He came to the place of which God had told him: and lifting up his eyes he saw the place from afar” (Gen. 22:3 f.).
ע״ב
72[65] Tell me, pray, did he who had come to the place see it from afar? Nay, it would seem that one and the same word is used of two different things: one of these is a divine Word, the other God Who was before the Word.
ע״ג
73[66] One who has come from abroad under Wisdom’s guidance arrives at the former place, thus attaining in the divine word the sum and consummation of service. But when he has his place in the divine Word he does not actually reach Him Who is in very essence God, but sees Him from afar: or rather, not even from a distance is he capable of contemplating Him; all he sees is the bare fact that God is far away from all Creation, and that the apprehension of Him is removed to a very great distance from all human power of thought.
ע״ד
74[67] Nay, it may be that neither in this part of the text does the lawgiver use “place” as a figurative description of the First Cause, but that what is signified is something like this: “he came to the place and looked up and saw with his eyes” the place itself to which he had come, that it was a long way off from God for Whom no name nor utterance nor conception of any sort is adequate.
ע״ה
75[68] Having laid down these preliminary definitions, we resume our story. When the Practiser comes to Haran, or Sense-perception, he “meets a place.” This “place” is not that filled by a mortal body, for of that all earth-born men have their share, for they have filled a space and occupy of necessity some place. Nor is it that best one, the third named above, of which it would hardly have been possible for him to form a conception by dwelling at the well called “Oath,” where Isaac has his abode, the self-taught nature that never desists from faith toward God and dim conception of Him. No: the “place” on which he “lights” is the place in the middle sense, the Word of God, shewing, as it does, the way to the things that are best, teaching, as it does, such lessons as the varying occasions require.
ע״ו
76[69] For God, not deeming it meet that sense should perceive Him, sends forth His Words to succour the lovers of virtue, and they act as physicians of the soul and completely heal its infirmities, giving holy exhortations with all the force of irreversible enactments, and calling to the exercise and practice of these and like trainers implanting strength and power and vigour that no adversary can withstand.
ע״ז
77[70] Meet and right then is it that Jacob, having come to Sense-perception, meets not now God but a word of God, even as did Abraham, the grandfather of his wisdom. For we are told that “the Lord departed, when He ceased speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place” (Gen. 18:33). By “returning to his place” is implied the meeting with sacred Words of a kind from which the God Who is prior to all things has withdrawn, ceasing to extend visions that proceed from Himself, but only those that proceed from the potencies inferior to Him.
ע״ח
78[71] There is an extraordinary fitness in saying not that he came to the place, but that he met with a place; for coming is a matter of choice, but there is often no exercise of choice in meeting. Thus should the divine Word, by manifesting Itself suddenly and offering Itself as a fellow-traveller to a lonely soul, hold out to it an unlooked-for joy—which is greater than hope. For Moses too, when he “leads out the people to meet God” (Ex. 19:17), knows full well that He comes all unseen to the souls that yearn to come into His presence.
ע״ט
79[72] The lawgiver further states the reason why Jacob “meta” a place: “for the sun was set,” it says (Gen. 28:11), not this sun which shews itself to our eyes, but the light of the supreme and invisible God most brilliant and most radiant. When this shines upon the understanding, it causes those lesser luminaries of words to set, and in a far higher degree casts into shade all the places of sense-perception; but when it has gone elsewhither, all these at once have their dawn and rising.
פ׳
80[73] And marvel not if the sun, in accordance with the rules of allegory, is likened to the Father and Ruler of the universe: for although in reality nothing is like God, there have been accounted so in human opinion two things only, one invisible, one visible, the soul invisible, the sun visible.
פ״א
81[74] The soul’s likeness to God the lawgiver has shewn elsewhere, by saying “God made man, after the image of God made He him” (Gen. 1:27), and again, in the law enacted against murderers, “he that sheddeth man’s blood, in requital for his blood shall there blood be shed, because in the image of God made I man” (Gen. 9:6); while the sun’s likeness to God he has indicated by figures.
פ״ב
82[75] In other ways also it is easy to discern this by a process of reasoning. In the first place: God is light, for there is a verse in one of the psalms, “the Lord is my illumination and my Saviour” (Ps. 27[28]:1). And He is not only light, but the archetype of every other light, nay, prior to and high above every archetype, holding the position of the model of a model. For the model or pattern was the Word which contained all His fullness—light, in fact ; for, as the lawgiver tells us, “God said, ‘let light come into being’ ” (Gen. 1:3), whereas He Himself resembles none of the things which have come into being.
פ״ג
83[76] Secondly: as the sun makes day and night distinct, so Moses says that God kept apart light and darkness; for “God,” he tells us, “separated between the light and between the darkness (Gen. 1:4). And above all, as the sun when it rises makes visible objects which had been hidden, so God when He gave birth to all things, not only brought them into sight, but also made things which before were not, not just handling material as an artificer, but being Himself its creator.
פ״ד
84[77] In the course of sacred revelation “Sun” is used in several figurative senses. To begin with, it is used of the human mind, which is erected and set up as a city by those who under compulsion serve creation in preference to the uncreated One. Of them we read that “they built strong cities for Pharaoh, namely Peitho,” speech, to which persuading is dedicated, “and Raamses,” sense-perception, by which the soul is eaten through as though by moths: the name means “moth-shock”;—“and On,” the mind, which Moses called Sun-city (Ex. 1:11), since the mind, like a sun, has assumed the leadership of our entire frame and bulk, and makes its forces reach, like the sun’s rays, to every part of it.
פ״ה
85[78] And everyone who has accepted the citizenship of the body, and the name of such is Joseph, chooses for his father-in-law the priest and devotee of Mind. For Moses says that Pharaoh “gave him Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis” (Gen. 41:45).
פ״ו
86[79] Secondly, Moses uses “sun” figuratively for sense-perception, inasmuch as it shews all objects of sense to the understanding. It is of sense-perception that Moses has spoken on this wise: “the sun arose upon him when he passed by the appearance of God” (Gen. 32:31); for in truth, when we are no longer able to remain in company with holiest forms, which are as it were incorporeal images, but turn in a different direction and go elsewhere, we are led by another light, even that which answers to sense-perception, a light, as compared with sound reason, differing no whit from darkness.
פ״ז
87[80] When this sun has risen it wakes up sight and hearing, yea taste and smell and touch, from their seeming sleep, but sound sense and justice and knowledge and wisdom, which it finds awake, it plunges in sleep.
פ״ח
88[81] This is why the sacred word says that no one can be clean until the even (Lev. 11 passim), the understanding being till then at the mercy of the movements of sense-perception.
פ״ט
89For the priests too he lays down an inexorable law, in the form of a prediction, in the words: “He will not eat of the holy things unless he have washed his body with water, and the sun be set, and he have become clean” (Lev. 22:6 f.).
צ׳
90[82] For he makes it perfectly evident by this declaration that no one is absolutely free from pollution, so as to celebrate the holy and reverend mysteries, by whom the splendours of this mortal life, objects as they are of sense-perception, are still held in honour. But if a man disdains them, the consequence is that he is shone upon by the light of sound sense, and by means of it he will be able completely to purge and wash out of himself the defilements of vain opinions.
צ״א
91[83] Or look at the sun itself. Do you not see that the effect of its rising is the reverse of that of its setting? When it has risen, all things on earth are lit up, while those in the heavens are obscured: on the contrary, when it has set the stars appear, and earthly objects are hidden.
צ״ב
92[84] It is precisely the same with us. When the light of our senses has risen like a sun, the various forms of knowledge, so truly heavenly and celestial, disappear from sight: when it reaches its setting, radiances most divine and most star-like sent forth from virtues come into view: and it is then that the mind also becomes pure because it is darkened by no object of sense.
צ״ג
93[85] The third meaning in which he employs the title sun is that of the divine Word, the pattern, as has been already mentioned, of the sun which makes its circuit in the sky. It is of the divine Word that it is said, “The sun went forth upon the earth, and Lot entered into Zoar, and the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire” (Gen. 19:23 f.).
צ״ד
94[86] For the Word of God, when it arrives at our earthy composition, in the case of those who are akin to virtue and turn away to her, gives help and succour, thus affording them a refuge and perfect safety, but sends upon her adversaries irreparable ruin.
צ״ה
95[87] In a fourth sense, as I have already said, the title of “Sun” is applied to the Ruler of the Universe Himself, through Whose agency irremediable sins, when apparently concealed, are disclosed. For to God all things are known, even as all things are possible.
צ״ו
96[88] In accordance with this we see Him bringing to the sun to be laid bare those energies of the soul that have been unstrung by lewd and licentious intercourse with Mind’s daughters, the senses, as though they were common strumpets.
צ״ז
97[89] For he says “and the people abode in Shittim”—the meaning of this name is “thorns,” a symbol of passions pricking and wounding the soul—“and was defiled to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab”—these are the senses, entitled daughters of Mind; for the translation of “Moab” is “from a father.” The lawgiver adds the command given him: “Take all the chiefs of the people and set them up publicly unto the Lord before the sun, and the anger of the Lord shall be turned away from Israel” (Num. 25:1, 4).
צ״ח
98[90] It was not only that, in his desire that the hidden deeds of unrighteousness should be made manifest, he caused the rays of the sun to shine about them. More than this, he gave the figurative title of “Sun” to the universal Father, to Whose sight all things are open, even those which are perpetrated invisibly in the recesses of the understanding. He says that when they have been made manifest, the One gracious Being will be found gracious.
צ״ט
99[91] Why so? Because, if the understanding imagining that its wrongdoing will escape the notice of God as though He were not able to see all things, sin secretly in deep recesses; if subsequently, whether of itself or by the leading of another, it come to realize that it is impossible that anything should be otherwise than clear to God; if it unfold itself and all its doings, and bringing them out into the open expose them as it were in the sunlight to Him Whose eye is upon all things; if it say that it repents of the evil opinions which it formerly held in reliance upon an ill-judging judgement; if it acknowledge that nothing is withdrawn from His sight, but that all things are ever known and manifest to Him, not only those which have been done already, but the far greater body of those which are but contemplated in the future;—then has it gained cleansing and benefit and has appeased the just wrath of the convicting wielder of the lash who was standing over it. So is it with the soul if it embraces repentance, younger brother of complete guiltlessness.
ק׳
100[92] There are other cases in which the lawgiver evidently takes the sun figuratively as applying to the First Cause, as in the Law enacted with reference to those who lend money on security. Read the Law: “If thou take thy neighbour’s garment to pledge thou shalt restore it to him before the setting of the sun; for this is his only covering, it is the garment of his shame. Wherein shall he sleep? If then he cry unto Me, I will hear him, for I am compassionate” (Ex. 22:26 f.).
ק״א
101[93] Do not those who suppose that the lawgiver feels all this concern about a cloak deserve, if not reproach, at least a reminder, in such terms as, “What are you saying, good sirs? Does the Creator and Ruler of the universe speak of Himself as compassionate in regard to so trifling a matter, a garment not returned to a debtor by a lender of money?
ק״ב
102[94] To entertain such ideas is a mark of men who have utterly failed to see the greatness of the excellence of the infinitely great God, and against every principle human or divine attribute human pettiness to the Being Who is un-originate
ק״ג
103[95] and incorruptible and full of all blessedness and happiness. What is there outrageous in money-lenders keeping the securities in their own hands, until they have got back their own? Someone will say perhaps that the debtors are poor men, and deserve pity. In that case would it not be better to make a law for contributing to the needs of such people instead of making them debtors, or for prohibiting lending upon security? But the legislator who has permitted this cannot reasonably be indignant with those who do not give up before the time what they have received,
ק״ד
104[96] and treat them as devoid of piety. And does a man who has reached practically the extreme limit of poverty, and is clothed with a single rag, endeavour to attract fresh money-lenders, while he lets pass unheeded the compassion, which goes forth abundantly from all beholders, indoors, at temples,
ק״ה
105[97] in the market-place, everywhere, to those who experience such misfortunes? But in this case he is supposed to bring and offer the sole covering of his shame, with which he veiled nature’s secret parts. And security for what? tell me that. Is it for a better garment to take its place? For no one is at a loss for the bare necessities of food, so long as springs gush forth, and rivers run down in winter, and earth yields her fruits in their season.
ק״ו
106[98] And is the creditor either so swallowed up in riches or so exceedingly cruel as to be unwilling to afford a tetradrachm (or less it may be) to anybody, or make a loan rather than a free gift to one so poor, or to take as security the man’s only garment, an act which might well be given another name and called coat-snatching? For that is the coat-snatcher’s way; when they remove people’s apparel they carry it off, and leave the owners naked.
ק״ז
107[99] And why did he take thought for night and that no one should sleep without clothing, but shewed no such care for the day and that a man should not be indecent in his waking hours? Or is it not the case that by night and darkness all things are hidden, so that nakedness causes less shame or none at all, whereas by the light of day all things are uncovered, so that then one is more obliged to blush?
ק״ח
108[100] And why did he enjoin not the giving but the returning of the garment? For we return what belongs to another, whereas the securities belong to the lenders rather than to the borrowers. And do you not notice that he has given no direction to the debtor, after taking the garment to use as a blanket, when day has come to get up and remove it and carry it to the money-lender?
ק״ט
109[101] And indeed the peculiarities of the wording might well lead even the slowest-witted reader to perceive the presence of something other than the literal meaning of the passage: for the ordinance bears the marks of an explanatory statement rather than of an exhortation. A man giving an exhortation would have said, “If the garment given as security be the only one the borrower has, return it before evening, that he may have it to wrap round him at night.” But if he makes a statement he would put as it stands: “thou shalt give it back to him, for this is the only wrapper he has, this is the garment without which he is not decent; what is he to sleep in?” (Ex. 22:27).
ק״י
110[102] Let what has been said and other considerations of the same kind suffice for the self-satisfied pedantic professors of literalism, and let us in accordance with the rules of allegory make such remarks on this passage as are appropriate. Well, then, we say that a garment is a figure for rational speech. For clothing keeps off the mischiefs that are wont to befall the body from frost and heat; it conceals nature’s secret parts; and the raiment is a fitting adornment to the person.
קי״א
111[103] In like manner, rational speech was bestowed on man by God as the best of gifts. First of all, it is a weapon of defence against those who threaten him with violence. For as nature has fortified other living creatures each with appropriate means of guarding themselves whereby they may beat off those who attempt to do them an injury, so has she given to man a most strong redoubt and impregnable fort in rational speech. Grasping this with all his might as a soldier does his weapons, he will have a body-guard meeting his every need. Having this to fight before him, he will be able to ward off the hurts which his enemies would fain inflict upon him.
קי״ב
112[104] In the second place, rational speech is a most necessary covering for matters of shame and reproach; it has great ability to conceal and hide up men’s sins. Thirdly, it serves as an adornment of the whole life: for this it is that makes each one of us better and leads every man to something higher.
קי״ג
113[105] But there are some men who—mischievous pests that they are —actually hold rational speech in pawn, and rob its possessors of it, and, when they ought to foster its growth, cut it utterly down, like those who ravage the fields of their enemies and endeavour to destroy both the wheat and the other crops, which if left alone would have been a great boon to the consumers.
קי״ד
114[106] What I mean is that there are some who wage an unrelenting war against the rational nature, men who cut down to the ground its first shoots, and squeeze the life out of its earliest growths, so rendering it to all intents and purposes barren and unproductive of noble doings.
קי״ה
115[107] For there are times when, seeing it bent with irresistible impulse on education and smitten with a passionate love of the truths which philosophy has discovered, they conceive a jealous and malicious fear lest, grandly inspired and highly exalted, it should sweep like a torrent over their hair-splittings and plausible inventions for the overthrow of truth, and by their perversions of art change the direction of its current, providing a channel leading to low and illiberal arts and sciences. Not infrequently they sterilize and block it up, and leave its natural greatness fallow and unfruitful, like bad guardians of orphans who let a rich and fertile farm become a wilderness. In fact, void of pity beyond all men, they are not ashamed to strip a man of his only garment, reason; for it says “this is all he has to put round him” (Ex. 22:27).
קי״ו
116[108] What is this save reason? For as neighing is peculiar to a horse, and barking to a dog, and lowing to a cow, and roaring to a lion, so is speech and reason itself to man. For with this has man, the dearest to God of all living creatures, been dowered as specially his own, to be his stronghold, protection, armour, wall.
קי״ז
117[109] This is why he adds “this garment is the only cover of his unseemliness” (Ex. 22:27). For who is there that in so fair a fashion removes from sight what might cause shame or entail reproach in man’s life, as does reason? For ignorance, the kin of the irrational nature, is a matter of shame, while culture, near akin to reason, is his proper adornment:
קי״ח
118[110] “In what, then, shall he sleep?” or, in other words, wherein shall a man find calmness and complete repose, save in reason? For reason brings relief to those of us whose fate is the most grievous. Even, then, as the kindliness and companionship and courtesy of friends has many a time healed and comforted those who were oppressed by sorrows or fears or some other ills, so not often but always is it mischief-averting reason that alone dislodges the overwhelming burden laid upon us by the distresses incident to our yokefellow the body, or by the unforeseen disasters that swoop down on us from without.
קי״ט
119[111] For reason is our friend, familiar, associate, comrade, bound up with us, or rather cemented and united with us by an invisible and indissoluble natural glue. That is why it both foretells what will be expedient, and, when something undesirable has occurred, is at hand with unsolicited aid, bringing not only one or other of the two kinds of help, that of the adviser who does not act, or that of the fellow-combatant who does not speak, but both of these.
ק״כ
120[112] For the power which reason exercises does not work by half measures, but is thoroughgoing on every side, and if it fails in its plans or in its execution of them, it has recourse to the third mode of help-giving, namely consolation. For as there are healing applications for wounds, so are the disorders of the soul healed by reason, of which the lawgiver says that it must be restored “before the setting of the sun” (Ex. 22:26), which means before the going down of those all-illuminating rays of the God who is greatest and most present to help, who by reason of His compassion for our race sends them forth from heaven into the mind of man.
קכ״א
121[113] For while there is abiding in the soul that most God-like and incorporeal light, we shall restore the reason which had been given in pledge, as a garment is given, in order that he, who has received back the possession which is man’s peculiar prerogative, may have opportunity to cover over all that is a shame to human life, to get the full benefit of the divine gift, and to enjoy calm repose through the presence of a counsellor and defender so true, so sure never to abandon the post in which he has been stationed.
קכ״ב
122[114] While, then, God still pours upon you the rays of His sacred light, hasten while it is day to restore to its owner the pledge you have seized. For when that light has set, you, like “all Egypt” (Ex. 10:21), will experience for ever a darkness that may be felt, and smitten with sightlessness and ignorance will be deprived of the possessions of all of which you deemed yourself master, and be perforce enslaved by Israel, the Seeing One, whom, though by nature immune from bondage, you seized as your chattel.
קכ״ג
123[115] This long course we have run to no other end than to shew how it fares with the Practiser’s mind. Its movements are uneven, sometimes towards fruitfulness, sometimes to the reverse; it is continually, as it were, ascending and descending. In the time of fruitfulness and uplifting, there shine upon it the archetypal and incorporeal rays of the fountain of reason, God the consummator, but when it sinks low and fails to yield, its light is the images of these rays, immortal “words” which it is customary to call angels.
קכ״ד
124[116] That is why, in this passage, he says “he met a place; for the sun was set” (Gen. 28:11). For when the soul is forsaken by the rays of God, by means of which apprehensions of things are gained in greatest distinctness, there rises the secondary feebler light, not as before of facts but of words, just as is the case in this material world; for the moon, ranking second to the sun when that has set, sends forth upon the earth a dimmer light.
קכ״ה
125[117] And further, to meet a “place” or “word” is an all-sufficient gift to those who are unable to see God Who is prior to “place” and “word,” inasmuch as they did not find their soul entirely bereft of illumination, but when that glorious undiluted light sank out of their sky, they obtained that which has been diluted. For we read in Exodus (10:23), “For the children of Israel there was light in all their dwellings,” so that night and darkness are for ever banished, with which they live whose blindness is not of the body, but of the soul, who know not virtue’s rays.
קכ״ו
126[118] Some, supposing that in this passage “sun” is a figurative expression for sense and mind, our own accepted standards of judgement, and “place” for the divine word, have understood the passage in this way: “the Practiser met a divine word when the mortal and human light had gone down.”
קכ״ז
127[119] For so long as mind and sense-perception imagine that they get a firm grasp, mind of the objects of mind and sense of the objects of sense, and thus move aloft in the sky, the divine Word is far away. But when each of them acknowledges its weakness, and going through a kind of setting passes out of sight, right reason is forward to meet and greet at once the practising soul, whose willing champion he is when it despairs of itself and waits for him who invisibly comes from without to its succour.
קכ״ח
128[120] We read next that “he took one of the stones of the place and set it under his head, and slept in that place” (Gen. 28:11). Our admiration is extorted not only by the lawgiver’s allegorical and philosophical teaching, but by the way in which the literal narrative inculcates the practice of toil and endurance.
קכ״ט
129[121] For he does not deem it worthy of one whose heart is set upon virtue to fare sumptuously and live a life of luxury affecting the tastes and ambitions of people who are called fortunate but are in reality laden with ill-fortune, whose whole life in the eyes of the most holy lawgiver is a sleep and a dream.
ק״ל
130[122] In the daytime these people, when they have got through their outrages upon other men in law-courts, and council-chambers, and theatres, and everywhere, come home, poor wretches, to ruin their own abode, not that which consists of buildings, but the abode which is bound up by nature with the soul, I mean the body. Into it they convey an unlimited supply of eatables one after another, and steep it in quantities of strong drink, until the reasoning faculty is drowned, and the sensual passions born of excess are aroused and raging with a fury that brooks no check, after falling upon and entangling themselves with all whom they meet, have disgorged their great frenzy and have abated.
קל״א
131[123] At night, when it is time to retire to bed, they recline exceedingly delicately on costly couches and gaily-coloured bedding with which they have provided themselves, aping the luxury of women to whom nature allows an easier mode of life, agreeable to the body of softer stamp which the Creator Artificer has wrought for them.
קל״ב
132[124] None such is a disciple of the holy Word, but only those who are really men, enamoured of moderation, propriety, and self-respect: men who have laid down as the foundation, so to speak, of their whole life self-control, abstemiousness, endurance, which are safe roadsteads of the soul, in which it can lie firmly moored and out of danger; men superior to the temptations of money, pleasure, popularity, regardless of meat and drink and of the actual necessaries of life, so long as lack of food does not begin to threaten their health; men perfectly ready for the sake of acquiring virtue to submit to hunger and thirst and heat and cold and all else that is hard to put up with; men keen to get things most easily procured, who are never ashamed of an inexpensive cloak, but on the contrary regard those which cost much as matter for reproach and a great waste of their living.
קל״ג
133[125] To these men a soft bit of ground is a costly couch; bushes, grass, shrubs, a heap of leaves, their bedding; their pillow some stones or mounds rising a little above the general level. Such a mode of life as this the luxurious call hard faring, but those who live for what is good and noble describe it as most pleasant; for it is suited to those who are not merely called but really are men.
קל״ד
134[126] Do you not see how, in the passage before us, the lawgiver represents the athlete of noble pursuits, in enjoyment of a princely abundance of materials for comfort, as sleeping on the ground, and using a stone as his pillow, and a little later in his prayers asking for nature’s wealth, bread and raiment (Gen. 28:20)? For he ever held up to ridicule the wealth which depends on the vain opinions of men, and scoffed at those who regarded it with reverence. In him we have the original pattern of the practiser’s soul, one at war with every man that is effeminate and emasculated.
קל״ה
135[127] So much, then, for the praise of the lover of toil and virtue in the literal sense of the passage. We have still to explore its symbolic teaching. In doing so it is of importance to know that the divine “place” and the holy land is full of incorporeal “words”; and these words are immortal souls.
קל״ו
136[128] Of these words he takes one, choosing as the best the topmost one, occupying the place which the head does in the whole body, and sets it up close to his understanding (Gen. 28:11); for the understanding is, we may say, the soul’s head. He does so professedly to sleep upon it, but in reality to repose on the divine word, and lay his whole life, lightest of burdens, thereon.
קל״ז
137[129] The divine word readily listens to and accepts the athlete to be first of all a pupil, then when he has been satisfied of his fitness of nature, he fastens on the gloves as a trainer does and summons him to the exercises, then closes with him and forces him to wrestle until he has developed in him an irresistible strength, and by the breath of divine inspiration he changes ears into eyes, and gives him when remodelled in a new form the name of Israel—He who sees.
קל״ח
138[130] It is then too that he confers on him the crown of victory. Now the crown has a strange and outlandish and perhaps ill-sounding name; for the name given it by the president of the contest is “numbness”; for we read that “the broad part grew numb” (Gen. 32:25), a guerdon the most wondrous of all awards ever announced in honour of a victor.
קל״ט
139[131] For if the soul which had been made partaker of indomitable power, and has attained perfection in contests for the winning of virtues, and has reached the very limit of the good and beautiful, instead of being lifted up in arrogance and stepping high in vaunting mood, conscious of power to take long strides on sound feet, should turn numb and shrink in the broad limb enlarged by conceit, and then after thus voluntarily disabling itself go with limping gait, that so it might fall behind the incorporeal beings—though seemingly worsted it will be the victor.
ק״מ
140[132] For to give up prizes to one’s betters of free choice and not under compulsion is accounted highly profitable, since even the second prizes offered in this contest immeasurably transcend in greatness of honour the first prizes in all other contests.
קמ״א
141[133] Such, then, is the prelude of the God-sent vision, and it is now time to turn to the vision itself, and to examine in detail its several points. “He dreamed,” it runs, “and behold a stairway set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it; and the Lord stood firmly upon it” (Gen. 28:12).
קמ״ב
142[134] “Stairway” when applied to the universe is a figurative name for the air; whose foot is earth and its head heaven. For the air extends in all directions to the ends of the earth from the sphere of the moon which is described by meteorologists as last of the heavenly zones, and first of those which are related to us.
קמ״ג
143[135] The air is the abode of incorporeal souls, since it seemed good to their Maker to fill all parts of the universe with living beings. He set land-animals on the earth, aquatic creatures in the seas and rivers, and in heaven the stars, each of which is said to be not a living creature only but mind of the purest kind through and through; and therefore in air also, the remaining section of the universe, living creatures exist. If they are not to be apprehended by sense, what of that?
קמ״ד
144[136] The soul too is a thing invisible. Indeed it is more to be expected that air should be the nurse of living creatures than that land and water should, seeing that it is air that has given vitality to the creatures of land and water, for the Great Artificer made air the principle of coherence in motionless bodies, the principle of growth in bodies which move but receive no sense-impressions, while in bodies that are susceptible of impulse and sense-impression He made it the principle of life.
קמ״ה
145[137] Is it not then inconsistent that the element through which other things obtained vitality should be empty of living souls? Accordingly let no one take away nature at its best, as it is in living creatures, from the best of earth’s elements, air: for so far is air from being alone of all things untenanted, that like a city it has a goodly population, its citizens being imperishable and immortal souls equal in number to the stars.
קמ״ו
146[138] Of these souls some, such as have earthward tendencies and material tastes, descend to be fast bound in mortal bodies, while others ascend, being selected for return according to the numbers and periods determined by nature.
קמ״ז
147[139] Of these last some, longing for the familiar and accustomed ways of mortal life, again retrace their steps, while others pronouncing that life great foolery call the body a prison and a tomb, and escaping as though from a dungeon or a grave, are lifted up on light wings to the upper air and range the heights for ever.
קמ״ח
148[140] Others there are of perfect purity and excellence, gifted with a higher and diviner temper, that have never felt any craving after the things of earth, but are viceroys of the Ruler of the universe, ears and eyes, so to speak, of the great king, beholding and hearing all things.
קמ״ט
149[141] These are called “demons” by the other philosophers, but the sacred record is wont to call them “angels” or messengers, employing an apter title, for they both convey the biddings of the Father to His children and report the children’s need to their Father.
ק״נ
150[142] In accordance with this they are represented by the lawgiver as ascending and descending: not that God, who is already present in all directions, needs informants, but that it was a boon to us in our sad case to avail ourselves of the services of “words” acting on our behalf as mediators, so great is our awe and shuddering dread of the universal Monarch and the exceeding might of His sovereignty.
קנ״א
151[143] It was our attainment of a conception of this that once made us address to one of those mediators the entreaty: “Speak thou to us, and let not God speak to us, lest haply we die” (Ex. 20:19). For should He, without employing ministers, hold out to us with His own hand, I do not say chastisements, but even benefits unmixed and exceeding great, we are incapable of receiving them.
קנ״ב
152[144] It is a fine thought that the dreamer sees the air symbolized by a stairway as firmly set on the earth; for the exhalations given forth out of the earth are rarefied and so turned into air, so that earth is air’s foot and root and heaven its head.
קנ״ג
153[145] Do they not tell us that the moon is not an unmixed mass of ether, as each of the other heavenly bodies is, but a blend of ethereal and aerial substance; and that the black which appears in it, which some call a face, is nothing else than the commingled air which is naturally black and extends all the way to heaven ?
קנ״ד
154[146] Such then is that which in the universe is figuratively called stairway. If we consider that which is so called in human beings we shall find it to be soul. Its foot is sense-perception, which is as it were the earthly element in it, and its head, the mind which is wholly unalloyed, the heavenly element, as it may be called.
קנ״ה
155[147] Up and down throughout its whole extent are moving incessantly the “words” of God, drawing it up with them when they ascend and disconnecting it with what is mortal, and exhibiting to it the spectacle of the only objects worthy of our gaze; and when they descend not casting it down, for neither does God nor does a divine Word cause harm, but condescending out of love for man and compassion for our race, to be helpers and comrades, that with the healing of their breath they may quicken into new life the soul which is still borne along in the body as in a river.
קנ״ו
156[148] In the understandings of those who have been purified to the utmost the Ruler of the universe walks noiselessly, alone, invisibly, for verily there is an oracle once vouchsafed to the Sage, in which it is said: “I will walk in you, and will be your God” (Lev. 26:12): but in the understandings of those who are still undergoing cleansing and have not yet fully washed their life defiled and stained by the body’s weight there walk angels, divine words, making them bright and clean with the doctrines of all that is good and beautiful.
קנ״ז
157[149] It is quite manifest what troups of evil tenants are ejected, in order that One, the good one, may enter and occupy. Be zealous therefore, O soul, to become a house of God, a holy temple, a most beauteous abiding-place; for perchance, perchance the Master of the whole world’s household shall be thine too and keep thee under His care as His special house, to preserve thee evermore strongly guarded and unharmed.
קנ״ח
158[150] It may be too that the Practiser has his own life presented to him in his vision as resembling a stairway; for practising is by nature an uneven business, at one moment going onward to a height, at another returning in the opposite direction, and at one time like a ship making life’s voyage with fair winds, at another with ill winds. For the life of practisers is, as one has said, a life “of alternate days,” sometimes alive and wakeful, sometimes dead or asleep.
קנ״ט
159[151] And this suggestion is not perhaps wide of the mark. For while it is the portion of the wise to dwell in the heavenly region of Olympus, since they have ever learned to make the heights their resort, and the depths of Hades are the abode allotted to the bad, who from first to last have made dying their occupation, and from the cradle to old age are accustomed to corruption,
ק״ס
160[152] the practisers—midway between those extremes—are often stepping up and down as upon a stairway, either being drawn upwards by the better portion or dragged in the opposite direction by the worse, until God, the umpire of this strife and conflict, bestows the prizes on the better order, and brings its opposite to perdition.
קס״א
161[153] I must not fail to mention another idea which is present in the vision. The affairs of men are naturally likened to a ladder owing to their uneven course.
קס״ב
162[154] For one day, as the poet says, brings one man down from on high, and lifts another up, and nothing relating to man is of a nature to remain as it is, but all such things are liable to changes of every kind.
קס״ג
163[155] Are not private citizens continually becoming officials, and officials private citizens, rich men becoming poor men and poor men men of ample means, nobodies becoming celebrated, obscure people becoming distinguished, weak men strong, insignificant men powerful, foolish men men of understanding, witless men sound reasoners?
קס״ד
164[156] Such is the road on which human affairs go up and down, a road liable to shifting and unstable happenings, their uneven tenor manifestly laid bare by time’s unerring test.
קס״ה
165[157] The dream shewed the Ruler of the angels set fast upon the stairway, even the Lord: for high up like a charioteer high over his chariot or a helmsman high over his ship must we conceive of Him that IS standing over bodies, over souls, over doings, over words, over angels, over earth, over air, over sky, over powers descried by our senses, over invisible beings, yea all things seen and unseen: for having made the whole universe to depend on and cling to Himself, He is the Charioteer of all that vast creation.
קס״ו
166[158] Let nobody, when he hears of His being set fast, think that anything co-operates with God to help Him to stand firmly. Let him account the truth signified by it to be equivalent to the statement that the sure God is the support and stay, the firmness and stability of all things, imparting as with the impress of a seal to whom He will the power of remaining unshaken. For it is because He stablishes and holds it together that the system of created things remains strongly and mightily free from destruction.
קס״ז
167[159] He, then, that stands upon the stairway of heaven says to him who beholds the dream-vision, “I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac: fear not” (Gen. 28:13). This oracle was the fort and most firm buttress of the practising soul. It clearly taught him that He Who is Lord and God of the universe is both Lord and God of his family, registered under both titles as held by father and grandfather, to the end that the world at large and the lover of virtue may have the same inheritance: for it has been said, “the Lord Himself is his inheritance” (Deut. 10:9).
קס״ח
168[160] Do not think that it is without special point that in this passage the divine relationship to Abraham is expressed by the words “Lord and God,” that to Isaac by the word “God” only. For Isaac is a figure of knowledge gained by nature, knowledge which listens to and learns from no other teacher but itself, while Abraham is a figure of knowledge gained by instruction; and Isaac is a dweller on his native soil, while Abraham is an emigrant and a stranger in the land.
קס״ט
169[161] For, abandoning the foreign alien tongue of Chaldaea, the tongue of sky-prating astrology, he betook him to the language that befits a living creature endowed with reason, even the worship of the First Cause of all things.
ק״ע
170[162] This character stands in need of two tending powers, governance and kindness, in order that by the authority of the ruler it may be led to give heed to his ordinances, and by his graciousness be greatly benefited. The other character needs the power of kindness only, for, having obtained by nature goodness and beauty of character, he was not one who had been improved by the admonishments of a governor, but as the result of the gifts showered upon him from above he shewed himself good and perfect from the outset.
קע״א
171[163] Now the name denoting the kind and gracious power is “God,” and that denoting the kingly ruling power is “Lord.” What good thing, then, would a man say was of the first rank, but the meeting with unmixed untempered kindness? And to what would he assign the second place, save to kindness which was a blend of governing and giving? It seems to me that it was by discerning this that the Practiser was led to pray a prayer worthy of the utmost admiration, that the Lord would become to him God (Gen. 28:21): for he wished no longer to be in dread of Him as ruler, but lovingly to honour Him as bestower of kindness.
קע״ב
172[164] Might it not have been expected, I ask, that these and like lessons would cause even those who were blind in their understanding to grow keen-sighted, receiving from the most sacred oracles the gift of eyesight, enabling them to judge of the real nature of things, and not merely rely on the literal sense? But even if we do close the eye of our soul and either will not take the trouble or have not the power to regain our sight, do thou thyself, O Sacred Guide, be our prompter and preside over our steps and never tire of anointing our eyes, until conducting us to the hidden light of hallowed words thou display to us the fast-locked lovelinesses invisible to the uninitiate.
קע״ג
173[165] Thee it beseems to do this; but all ye souls which have tasted divine loves, rising up as it were out of a deep sleep and dispelling the mist, hasten towards the sight to which all eyes are drawn; put away the heavy-footed lingering of hesitation, that you may take in all that the Master of the contests has prepared in your behoof, for you to see and hear.
קע״ד
174[166] The notable examples which may be used to shew these are countless. The text just quoted is one of them. For the oracle spoke of the man, who in kin was the Practiser’s grandfather, as his father; but did not, when mentioning his actual father, give him the title of parent. The words are: “I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father”—and yet he was his grandfather—and again, “the God of Isaac” (Gen. 28:13), without the addition of “thy father.”
קע״ה
175[167] Now, is it not worth while to investigate the cause of this? Assuredly it is. So let us carefully inquire what it is. The lawgiver says that virtue is gained either by nature or by practice or by learning, and has accordingly recorded the patriarchs of the nation as three in number, all wise men. They had not at the start the same form of character, but they were all bent on reaching the same goal.
קע״ו
176[168] Abraham, the earliest of them, had teaching as his guide on the way that leads to the good and beautiful, as we shall shew to the best of our ability in another treatise. Isaac who comes between him and Jacob had as his guide a nature which listens to and learns from itself alone. Jacob, the third of them, relied on exercises and practisings preparatory for the strenuous toil of the arena.
קע״ז
177[169] There being, then, three methods by which virtue accrues, it is the first and third that are most intimately connected; for what comes by practice is the offspring and product of that which comes by learning; whereas that which comes by nature is, to be sure, of kin with them, being like a root at the bottom of all three, but the prerogative allotted to it is one which none contests and which needs no effort.
קע״ח
178[170] Thus it is quite natural to say that Abraham, who owed his improvement to teaching, was father of Jacob, who was shaped and drilled by exercises, meaning not so much that the man Abraham was father of the man Jacob, as that the faculty of hearing which is a most ready instrument for learning begets and produces the faculty of exercise and practice so serviceable in contest.
קע״ט
179[171] If, however, our practiser exert himself and run to the end of the course, and come to see clearly what he formerly saw dimly as in a dream, and receives the impress of a nobler character and the name of “Israel,” “he that seeth God,” in place of “Jacob,” “the supplanter,” he no longer claims as his father Abraham, the man who learned, but Isaac the man who was born good by nature.
ק״פ
180[172] This is not a story invented by me, but an oracle inscribed upon the sacred tables. For we read that “Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to the well of the oath, and offered a sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac” (Gen. 46:1). Do you by this time perceive that the discourse before us is not about mortal men, but, as already stated, about the facts of nature? For you observe that the same subject is at one time named Jacob, with Abraham as his father, and at another is styled Israel with Isaac as his father, the reason for this being that which has been set forth in detail.
קפ״א
181[173] So, after saying “I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac,” he adds “fear not” (Gen. 28:13). The words come naturally after the others; for how shall we any longer be afraid, when we have Thee our Defender, a weapon that brings deliverance from fear and every passion? Moreover, it was Thou that didst bring out of obscurity into distinctness the original patterns of our education, Abraham whose teacher, and Isaac whose parent Thou wast: for Thou didst condescend to be named instructor of the one and father of the other, giving one the position of pupil, the other that of son.
קפ״ב
182[174] It is because Thou art this that Thou dost promise that Thou wilt give him the land also, virtue I mean abounding in all manner of fruits, whereon the Practiser slumbers, asleep to the life of sense, but awake to that of the soul and therefore at rest. Thou graciously approvest his peaceful repose, which he won not without war and war’s hardships, a war in which he bore no arms and destroyed no men (away with the thought!) but overthrew the troop of passions and vices that oppose virtue.
קפ״ג
183[175] Wisdom’s race is likened to the sand of the earth (ibid. 14), both because its number is without limit and because the sand-bank forces back the inroads of the sea, as those of sinful and unjust deeds are kept back by trained reason. And this, in accordance with the Divine promises, is broadening out to the very bounds of the universe, and renders its possessor inheritor of the four quarters of the world, reaching to them all, to East, and West, and South and North: for it is said, “It shall spread abroad, to the West and to the South and to the North and to the East?” (ibid. 14).
קפ״ד
184[176] The man of worth is not just a good to himself but a common good to all men. From his ready store he proffers the boon which is his to give. For as the sun is a light to all who have eyes, so is the wise man to such as are partakers of a rational nature,
קפ״ה
185for he says “in thee shall all tribes be blessed” (ibid. 14).
קפ״ו
186[177] Now this divine utterance has its application to a man both in his relation to his own separate being, and as a social being related to others. For if the mind which is in me have been rendered pure by perfect virtue, then the “tribes” of that which is earthly in me are sharers of its purifying, those I mean which pertain to the senses and to that chiefest container, the body. Again, if one belonging to a household or city or country or nation become a lover of sound sense, it must be that that household and city and country and nation has a better mode of life.
קפ״ז
187[178] For just as the exhalations from aromatic herbs fill those who come near them with a sweet fragrance, in the same way those who belong to the circle and neighbourhood of a wise man, drinking in the atmosphere which spreads far and wide around him, are improved in character.
קפ״ח
188[179] It is a vast boon to a toiling and striving soul to have as a Fellow-traveller God whose presence reaches everywhere: for we read, “Behold, I am with thee” (ibid. 15). Of what riches can we any longer stand in need, when we have Thee Who art alone the true riches, “keeping us on the way” which leads to virtue, along all its sections? For there is not one part only of the life according to reason which tends to righteousness and virtue generally, but an infinite number of them, each a fresh starting-point on the road to wisdom.
קפ״ט
189[180] Right good too are the words “I will bring thee again into this land” (ibid.). For excellent would it have been for the reasoning faculty to have remained in its own keeping and not have left its home for that of sense-perception; but, failing that, it is well that it should return to itself again.
ק״צ
190[181] Perhaps, too, in these words he hints at the doctrine of the immortality of the soul: for, as was said a little before, it forsook its heavenly abode and came into the body as into a foreign land. But the Father who gave it birth says that He will not permanently disregard it in its imprisonment, but will take pity on it and loose its chains, and escort it in freedom and safety to its mother-city, and will not stay his hand until the promises given by words have been made good by actual deeds: for it is the special attribute of God and of Him alone to say what will surely come to pass.
קצ״א
191[182] And yet what need to say this? For His words are in no way different from deeds.
קצ״ב
192So, then, the practising soul, now fully roused and ready for the inquiry into what concerns Him that IS, at first made the conjecture that He is in a place, but after a little while, it is seized with fear at the unscrutable nature of the quest and begins to change its mind.
קצ״ג
193[183] For we read “Jacob rose up and said, that the Lord is in this place, but I knew it not” (ibid. 16). And it would have been better, I should say, to be ignorant than to suppose that God is in some place Who Himself contains and encompasses all things.
קצ״ד
194[184] Rightly, therefore, was he afraid and said in an awestruck tone, “How dreadful is this place” (ibid. 17). For indeed most difficult of the “places” in the study of nature’s verities is that in which men inquire as to where, and whether at all in any thing the Existent Being is. Some say that everything that subsists occupies some space, and of these one allots to the Existent One this space, another that, whether inside the world or a space outside it in the interval between worlds. Others maintain that the Unoriginate resembles nothing among created things, but so completely transcends them, that even the swiftest understanding falls far short of apprehending Him and acknowledges its failure.
קצ״ה
195[185] Wherefore he straightway cried aloud “This is not” (ibid. 17); this that I supposed, “that the Lord is in some place” (ibid. 16), is not so; for according to the true reckoning He contains, but is not contained. But this that we can point out and see, this world discerned by sense, is, as I now know, nothing but a house of “God,” that is, of one of the Potencies of the Existent, that is, the Potency which expresses His goodness.
קצ״ו
196[186] The world which he named a “house,” he also described as “gate of” the real “heaven” (ibid. 17). Now what is this? The world which only intellect can perceive, framed from the eternal forms in Him Who was appointed in accordance with Divine bounties, cannot be apprehended otherwise than by passing on to it from this world which we see and perceive by our senses.
קצ״ז
197[187] For neither indeed is it possible to get an idea of any other incorporeal thing among existences except by making material objects our starting-point. The conception of place was gained when they were at rest: that of time from their motion, and points and lines and superficies, in a word extremities from the robe-like exterior which covers them.
קצ״ח
198[188] Correspondingly, then, the conception of the intelligible world was gained from the one which our senses perceive: it is therefore a kind of gate into the former. For as those who desire to see our cities go in through gates, so all who wish to apprehend the unseen world are introduced to it by receiving the impression of the visible world. The world whose substance is discernible only by intellect apart from any sight whatever of shapes or figures, but only by means of the archetypal eternal form present in the world which was fashioned in accordance with the image beheld by him with no intervening shadow,—that world shall change its title, when all its walls and every gate has been removed and men may not catch sight of it from some outside point, but behold the unchanging beauty, as it actually is, and that sight no words can tell or express.
קצ״ט
199[189] On this matter enough has been said. There is another dream of the same type as the one we have been studying. It is the one concerning the flock whose markings varied. When he to whom it appeared has risen up he relates it in these words: “The angel of God said unto me in sleep, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘What is it?’ and he said, ‘Look up with thine eyes and see the he-goats and the rams leaping upon the sheep and the goats how they are pure white and speckled and ashy-sprinkled. For I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. I am God that appeared unto thee in God’s Place, where thou anointedst unto Me a pillar and vowedst unto Me a vow. Now therefore arise and go forth out of this land and depart into the land of thy nativity, and I will be with thee’ ” (Gen. 31:11–13).
ר׳
200[190] You see that the Divine word proclaims as dreams sent from God not only those which appear before the mind under the direct action of the Highest of Causes, but those also which are revealed through the agency of His interpreters and attendant messengers who have been held meet to receive from the Father to Whom they owe their being a divine and happy portion.
ר״א
201[191] Observe also what follows. The sacred word deals with some as a king, enjoining on them authoritatively what they are to do, with some as a teacher indicating to pupils what will be for their good, with some as a counsellor suggesting the best decisions, and greatly benefiting them since of themselves they do not know the advantageous course to take. Towards others it acts as a friend with winning condescension imparting to them even many secret truths which are not allowed to reach the ears of the uninitiated.
ר״ב
202[192] Sometimes it addresses an inquiry to this or that one, as it does to Adam, asking “Where art thou?” (Gen. 3:9), an inquiry to which one might with fitness make the reply “Nowhere,” seeing that nothing pertaining to man remains as it is, but all things are in motion, and this is true of soul, and of body, and of things external. For instability characterizes our reasonings, receiving as they do from the same objects not the same but contrary impressions. It characterizes also our body, as is shewn by the changes that occur in every period of life from infancy to old age. It characterizes too matters affecting us from without, tossed about as they are on the current of ever restless chance.
ר״ג
203[193] When, however, God has come to the company of His friends, He does not begin to say His say before He has addressed each such friend calling him by name, in order that they may prick up their ears, and with stillness and attention so listen to the sacred precepts as to remember them for ever; for it is also said in another place, “Keep silence, and hearken” (Deut. 27:9).
ר״ד
204[194] It is on this wise that Moses is addressed at the Bush, for we read “When He saw that he drew nigh to look, the Lord called him from out of the bush saying, ‘Moses, Moses.’ And he said, ‘What is it?’ ” (Ex. 3:4).
ר״ה
205And Abraham, at the offering up of his beloved and only son as a burnt offering, is so addressed, both when he was beginning to offer the sacrifice, and when, after giving proof of his piety, he was prevented from causing to disappear from among men the nature which learns untaught, called Isaac.
ר״ו
206[195] For when he was at the beginning we are told “God did prove Abraham, and said unto him, ‘Abraham, Abraham’; and he said ‘Here am I.’ And He said, ‘Take thy beloved son, whom thou lovedst, even Isaac, and offer him up.’ ” And when he had now brought the victim to the altar, then “an angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven, saying ‘Abraham, Abraham.’ And he said, ‘Here am I.’ And he said, ‘Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him’ ” (Gen. 22:1, 2, 9–12).
ר״ז
207[196] The Practiser being one of the band of friends of God is, as we might expect, accorded the same prerogative and addressed by name; for we read “The angel of God said to me in sleep, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘What is it?’ ” (Gen. 31:11).
ר״ח
208[197] And having been addressed by name he pays attention, endeavouring to note precisely the signs which appeared: and the signs are the couplings and breedings of thoughts in the guise of animals; for we read: “He lifted up his eyes and saw the he-goats and the rams mounting upon the sheep and the goats” (cf. Gen. 31:12).
ר״ט
209[198] A he-goat is leader of a herd of goats, a ram of a flock of sheep; and these animals are figures of two perfect ways of thinking, of which the one cleanses and purges a soul from sin, and the other nourishes it and renders it full of high achievements. Such are the leading thoughts at the head of the herds within us; and the herds, possessed of dispositions answering to the names of sheep and goats which represent them, dart and go forward towards righteousness with earnestness.
ר״י
210[199] Having therefore opened the hitherto closed eye of the understanding, Jacob saw the perfect thoughts which correspond to he-goats and rams brought to the sharpest edge both for the diminishing of sins and the increase of all that we ought to do,—saw how they mount the sheep and the goats, that is to say the souls that are still young and tender, just fresh and in the very prime and flower of youth,—saw that they do so, not in the pursuit of irrational pleasure, but using the invisible seed of the doctrines of sound sense.
רי״א
211[200] For rich in offspring is this wedlock, seeing that it does not bring one body to the embraces of another but mates well-endowed souls with perfect virtues. Mount then, all ye right thoughts and reasonings of wisdom, impregnate, impart seed, and whenever you catch sight of a soul of deep rich virgin soil, pass it not by, but inviting it to union and intercourse with yourselves, render it pregnant and so effect its consummation; for all that it brings forth shall be goodly, male offspring “consisting of pure white, speckled and ashy-sprinkled” (Gen. 31:10).
רי״ב
212[201] We must search for the force and meaning of each of these births. Thoroughly-white, then, are the brightest and most conspicuous, “thorough” being often applied to what is great, whence has come the custom of calling what is largely evident and largely notable “thoroughly-evident” and “thoroughly-notable.”
רי״ג
213[202] His wish then is that the firstborn progeny of the soul which has received the holy seed should be “thoroughly-white,” resembling not a dim light, but a brilliant shining, such as a cloudless ray coming from the sun’s beams would appear in a clear atmosphere at noontide.
רי״ד
214It is his wish that they be also variegated, not after the fashion of foul leprosy the changeful disease, which assumes so many different forms, nor destined, owing to lack of firmness of judgement, to lead an unstable agitated life, but engraved with inscriptions, and stamped with seals differing one from another but all of them genuine, the blending and combination of their proper marks producing a harmony like that of music.
רי״ה
215[203] For the art of variegation has been looked upon by some as so obscure and paltry a matter that they have relegated it to weavers. I on the contrary regard with awe not only the art itself but its very name, and most of all when I fix my eyes upon the sections of the earth, upon the spheres of heaven, the many different kinds of animals and plants, and that vast variegated piece of embroidery, this world of ours.
רי״ו
216[204] For I am straightway compelled to think of the artificer of all this texture as the inventor of the variegator’s science, and I do homage to the inventor, I prize the invention, I am dumbfounded at the result, and that though I am incapable of seeing even the smallest part of it, but from the part brought within the range of my vision, if indeed it has been brought, I form in detail a conjecture about the whole on the strength of what analogy leads me to expect.
רי״ז
217[205] Further-more, I admire the lover of wisdom, for having taken up this same art, in that he sees fit, when he finds a multitude of different things, to bring them together out of difference into oneness and to weave them together. For instance, he takes from the “grammar” taught to children the two first subjects, writing and reading; from the more advanced “grammar” acquaintance with the poets and a learning of ancient history ; from arithmetic and geometry absolute accuracy in matters which require a making of calculations and noting of proportion; from music rhythms and metres and melodies enharmonic, chromatic, diatonic, conjunct too and disjunct; from rhetoric, conception, expression, arrangement, treatment, memory, delivery ; from philosophy everything that has been omitted in the items given already, and all things else that constitute the whole life of men,—and from these combined he frames a single work gay and bright to a degree, blending wide learning with readiness to learn still more.
רי״ח
218[206] The artificer of this fabric was called by the holy word Bezaleel (Ex. 31:2 ff.), which is when interpreted “in the shadow of God.” For it is the copies of which he is chief builder, whereas Moses builds the patterns; for this reason the one drew an outline as it were of shadows, while the other fashioned no shadows, but the existences themselves that served as archetypes.
רי״ט
219[207] Now if the holy tabernacle was built by the variegator’s art, and the name of “variegator” or embroiderer is reserved for the sage in the oracles of revelation,
ר״כ
220and the beautiful variegated fabric of God, even this world of ours, has been wrought in its completeness by a knowledge full of all wisdom, how can we do otherwise than welcome variegation as a tool for the making of knowledge?
רכ״א
221[208] Its most holy image shall be enshrined in all the house of Wisdom both in heaven and on earth. And from it are derived the varieties of thinking which the Practiser’s labour creates, for after those of thorough-white he straightway saw those that were variegated, bearing the impress of the stamp of training.
רכ״ב
222[209] Third come the ashy-sprinkled. And yet what man of sound sense would not say that these also are of the variegated kind? The fact is that it is not about the difference between beasts that the lawgiver shews this deep concern, but rather about the way that leads to nobility of life.
רכ״ג
223[210] For he wishes the man who goes in quest of this to besprinkle himself with ashes and lustral water, inasmuch as it is recorded that earth and water mixed together and shaped were by the power of the Moulder of men set apart to form this body of ours, wrought as no handiwork, but a product of nature working all unseen.
רכ״ד
224[211] It is, then, the beginning of wisdom not to be forgetful of one’s own self, but ever to set before one’s eyes the elements of which one consists; for in this way a man would purge out of himself high vaunting, the most God-abhorred of evil things. For who, when he lays to heart that ashes and water are for him the beginnings of existence, will be puffed up by conceit and raised aloft?
רכ״ה
225[212] That is why the lawgiver required those who were about to sacrifice to besprinkle themselves with the materials I have mentioned. He held no one worthy of offering sacrifices who has not first come to know himself and comprehended human nothingness, inferring from the elements of which he is composed that he is nothing worth.
רכ״ו
226[213] These three signs, the thorough-white, the variegated, the ashy-sprinkled, are seen to be imperfect in the Practiser inasmuch as he is not yet perfect, whereas in the perfect man they too are perfect.
רכ״ז
227[214] Let us see in what way this is true. When the great High-priest was about to perform the public services enjoined by law, the holy word required that he should in the first place sprinkle himself with water and ashes (Ex. 29:4) as a reminder to him of himself—for even that wise one, Abraham, when he was on his way to intercede with God, spoke of himself as earth and ashes (Gen. 18:27)—in the next place that he should put on the tunic reaching to the feet, and over it that which he has entitled the embroidered or variegated breastplate (Ex. 29:5), a representation and copy of the shining constellations.
רכ״ח
228[215] For there are, as is evident, two temples of God: one of them this universe, in which there is also as High Priest His First-born, the divine Word, and the other the rational soul, whose Priest is the real Man; the outward and visible image of whom is he who offers the prayers and sacrifices handed down from our fathers, to whom it has been committed to wear the aforesaid tunic, which is a copy and replica of the whole heaven, the intention of this being that the universe may join with man in the holy rites and man with the universe.
רכ״ט
229[216] The High Priest has now been exhibited as having two characteristic marks, the sprinkled and the variegated: the third and most perfect, which is styled thorough-white, we will now proceed at once to indicate. When this same High Priest goes into the inmost part of the Holy Place, he divests himself of the variegated robe, and puts on another one of linen made from the purest kind (Lev. 16:4),
ר״ל
230[217] a figure of strong fibre, imperishableness, most radiant light: for fine linen is hard to tear, and is made from no mortal creature, and moreover when carefully cleaned has a very brilliant and luminous colour.
רל״א
231[218] What is symbolically intimated by these figures is, that among those who worship Him that IS with guileless purity, there is not one that does not, in the first place, exercise strength of will and judgement by a contempt for human interests which ensnare and hurt and enfeeble us; and, in the second place, laugh to scorn all the unsubstantial aims of mortal men, and set his heart on immortality; and, last of all, live irradiated by the cloudless splendour of truth, no longer entertaining any of the creations of false opinion so dear to darkness.
רל״ב
232[219] Let this stand as my description of the great High Priest marked with the three seals aforesaid, the thorough-white, the variegated, and the ashy-sprinkled. The man whose desires are set on human statecraft, Joseph by name, lays claim, as we can see, neither to the first nor to the third of these marks, but to the intervening one, the variegated, only.
רל״ג
233[220] For we are told that he had a coat of varied colours (Gen. 37:3). He did not besprinkle himself with lustral rites, from which he would have learned that he was an amalgam of ashes and water, and was incapable of touching the all-white and gleaming vestment, which is virtue, but arrayed himself in the woven robe of statecraft, a robe richly variegated, containing but a most meagre admixture of truth, but many large portions of false, probable, plausible, conjectural matter, out of which sprang up all the sophists of Egypt, augurs, ventriloquists, soothsayers, proficients in decoying, charming, and bewitching, whose insidious artifices it is no easy task to escape.
רל״ד
234[221] So Moses shews the insight of a philosopher in introducing this coat all blood-stained (Gen. 37:31), since the whole life of the statesman is stained, warring and being warred upon, receiving blows and shots from the mishaps which befall it.
רל״ה
235[222] Search then the man who is thoroughly immersed in public business, the man on whom the interests of the state depend, and do not be daunted by those who hold him in admiration. You will find many a disease lurking in him, many a baneful thing fastened upon him, each one of them violently gripping his soul and invisibly wrestling with it, striving to overthrow it and cast it down, either because the multitude are dissatisfied with his leadership, or because a more powerful rival is attacking him.
רל״ו
236[223] Envy again is a grievous foe, difficult to shake off, a growth which always settles on what men call “doing well,” and hard it is to escape from.
רל״ז
237[224] Why then do we invest ourselves with the gauds of political importance, as with some costly garment, and bear ourselves proudly in it, deceived by the fairness of what meets the eye, and not perceiving its insidious and dangerous ugliness which is out of sight and hidden from observation?
רל״ח
238[225] Come, let us cast off this showy tunic, and put on the sacred one inwoven with the varied embroidery of virtues. So shall we escape also the ambushments, which unskilfulness, ignorance and indiscipline set for our ruin, to which company Laban belongs.
רל״ט
239[226] For when the holy word had cleansed us with the water of sprinkling made ready for our sanctification, and bringing us to the test had decked us with the varied richness of the secrets of true philosophy, and had made us clear and distinct and bright, it censures the evil-designing character stirred up to spoil the effects of the said treatment.
ר״מ
240[227] For he says, “I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee” (Gen. 31:12), the reverse, that is, of all that I bestowed upon thee, even sore foulness and spuriousness and darkness in every part.
רמ״א
241Yet there can be no cowering fear for the man who relies on the hope of the divine comradeship, to whom are addressed the words “I am the God who appeared to thee in the place of God” (Gen. 31:13).
רמ״ב
242[228] Surely a right noble cause of vaunting it is for a soul, that God deigns to shew Himself to and converse with it. And do not fail to mark the language used, but carefully inquire whether there are two Gods; for we read “I am the God that appeared to thee,” not “in my place” but “in the place of God,” as though it were another’s.
רמ״ג
243[229] What, then, are we to say? He that is truly God is One, but those that are improperly so called are more than one. Accordingly the holy word in the present instance has indicated Him Who is truly God by means of the articles saying “I am the God,” while it omits the article when mentioning him who is improperly so called, saying “Who appeared to thee in the place” not “of the God,” but simply “of God.”
רמ״ד
244[230] Here it gives the title of “God” to His chief Word, not from any superstitious nicety in applying names, but with one aim before him, to use words to express facts. Thus in another place, when he had inquired whether He that IS has any name, he came to know full well that He has no proper name, and that whatever name anyone may use of Him he will use by licence of language; for it is not the nature of Him that IS to be spoken of, but simply to be.
רמ״ה
245[231] Testimony to this is afforded also by the divine response made to Moses’ question whether He has a name, even “I am He that is” (Ex. 3:14). It was given in order that, since there are not in God things which man can comprehend, man may recognize His subsistence.
רמ״ו
246[232] To the souls indeed which are incorporeal and are occupied in His worship it is likely that He should reveal Himself as He is, conversing with them as friend with friends; but to souls which are still in a body, giving Himself the likeness of angels, not altering His own nature, for He is unchangeable, but conveying to those which receive the impression of His presence a semblance in a different form, such that they take the image to be not a copy, but that original form itself.
רמ״ז
247[233] Indeed an old saying is still current that the deity goes the round of the cities, in the likeness now of this man now of that man, taking note of wrongs and transgressions. The current story may not be a true one, but it is at all events good and profitable for us that it should be current.
רמ״ח
248[234] And the sacred word ever entertaining holier and more august conceptions of Him that IS, yet at the same time longing to provide instruction and teaching for the life of those who lack wisdom, likened God to man, not, however, to any particular man.
רמ״ט
249[235] For this reason it has ascribed to Him face, hands, feet, mouth, voice, wrath and indignation, and, over and beyond these, weapons, entrances and exits, movements up and down and all ways, and in following this general principle in its language it is concerned not with truth, but with the profit accruing to its pupils.
ר״נ
250[236] For some there are altogether dull in their natures, incapable of forming any conception whatever of God as without a body, people whom it is impossible to instruct otherwise than in this way, saying that as a man does so God arrives and departs, goes down and comes up, makes use of a voice, is displeased at wrongdoings, is inexorable in His anger, and in addition to all this has provided Himself with shafts and swords and all other instruments of vengeance against the unrighteous.
רנ״א
251[237] For it is something to be thankful for if they can be taught self-control by the terror held over them by these means. Broadly speaking the lines taken throughout the Law are these two only, one that which keeps truth in view and so provides the thought “God is not as man” (Num. 23:19), the other that which keeps in view the ways of thinking of the duller folk, of whom it is said “the Lord God will chasten thee, as if a man should chasten his son” (Deut. 8:5).
רנ״ב
252[238] Why, then, do we wonder any longer at His assuming the likeness of angels, seeing that for the succour of those that are in need He assumes that of men? Accordingly, when He says “I am the God who was seen of thee in the place of God” (Gen. 31:13), understand that He occupied the place of an angel only so far as appeared, without changing, with a view to the profit of him who was not yet capable of seeing the true God.
רנ״ג
253[239] For just as those who are unable to see the sun itself see the gleam of the parhelion and take it for the sun, and take the halo round the moon for that luminary itself, so some regard the image of God, His angel the Word, as His very self.
רנ״ד
254[240] Do you not see how Hagar, who is the education of the schools, says to the angel “Thou art the God that didst look upon me”? (Gen. 16:13); for being Egyptian by descent she was not qualified to see the supreme Cause. But in the passage upon which we are occupied, the mind is beginning, as the result of improvement, to form a mental image of the sovereign Ruler of all such Potencies.
רנ״ה
255[241] Hence it is that He Himself says “I am the God,” whose image thou didst aforetime behold deeming it to be I Myself, and didst dedicate a pillar engraved with a most holy inscription (Gen. 31:13); and the purport of the inscription was that I alone am standing (Ex. 17:6) and that it was I alone that established the being of all things, bringing confusion and disorder into order and array, and sustained the universe to rest firm and sure upon the mighty Word, who is My viceroy.
רנ״ו
256[242] For “pillar” is a symbol of three things, of standing, of dedicating, of inscription. The standing and inscription have been made clear, but the dedicating demands explanation.
רנ״ז
257[243] The whole heaven and the whole world is an offering dedicated to God, and He it is who has created the offering; and all God-beloved souls, citizens of the world, consecrate themselves, allowing no mortal attraction to draw them in the opposite direction, and they never grow weary of devoting and sanctifying their own imperishable life.
רנ״ח
258[244] Foolish is the man who dedicates a pillar not to God but to himself, erecting what pertains to creation with its tossing this way and that, and holding worthy of laudatory inscriptions things which, richly deserving to be denounced and reproved, had better never have been made subjects for inscriptions at all, or if once so made have been forthwith erased.
רנ״ט
259[245] This is why the holy word says expressly “Thou shalt not erect a pillar to thyself” (Deut. 16:22); for in reality nothing human does stand, even though some falsely say so till they burst.
ר״ס
260[246] Nay, they do not only think that they are firmly established but also that they deserve honours and inscriptions, being oblivious of Him Who is alone deserving of honour and really stands. For when they turn away and stray out of the course which leads to virtue, sense-perception, the woman inherent in their nature, makes them stray still more, and forces them to run aground.
רס״א
261[247] Wherefore shattered to pieces like a ship, the whole soul is set up after the fashion of a pillar. For the sacred records say that Lot’s wife having turned to what was behind her became a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26).
רס״ב
262[248] And that is fit and natural, for if one has not a clear view of what is farther on, of what is worth seeing and hearing, of virtues, that is to say, and virtuous actions, but turns round to look at what is behind and at his back; if he pursues the deafness of glory, the blindness of wealth, the stupidity of bodily robustness, and the empty-mindedness of external beauty, and all that is akin to these, he will be set up as a soulless pillar, with its substance streaming down from it; for salt has no firmness.
רס״ג
263[249] Right well, then, does the Practiser, having learned by continuous exercises that creation is of itself a thing of movement, whereas the Unoriginate is free from alteration and from movement, raise a pillar to God, and having raised it anoints it: for we read “Thou anointedst unto Me a pillar” (Gen. 31:13).
רס״ד
264[250] But imagine not that here we have a stone anointed with oil; rather that the doctrine of God as the only Being that stands is exercised and practised in a soul with the trainer’s science, not that by which bodies are made stout and brawny, but that by which understanding acquires a vigour and strength which no opponent can overcome.
רס״ה
265[251] For he that has set out for the pursuit of noble practices is a lover of contest and a lover of exercises. Hence having thoroughly mastered the sister art to that of the physician, namely that of the trainer, having put all thoughts of virtue and piety through a course of training and drill, he will dedicate to God an offering most beauteous and firmly established.
רס״ו
266[252] Accordingly after the dedication of the pillar he goes on to say, “Thou didst vow to me a vow” (ibid.). Now a vow is in the fullest sense a dedication, seeing that a man is said to give a gift to God when he renders to Him not only his possessions but himself the possessor of them.
רס״ז
267[253] For the lawgiver says, “He shall be holy that letteth the locks of the hair of his head grow long” (Num. 6:5), that is, the man who has made the vow; and if he is holy, he is nothing else than a dedicated offering, seeing that he no more comes in contact with anything unhallowed and profane.
רס״ח
268[254] What I say is vouched for by that prophetess and mother of a prophet, Hannah, whose name is in our tongue “Grace.” For she says that she is giving as a gift to the Holy One her son Samuel (1 Sam. 1:11), not meaning a human being but rather an inspired temper possessed by a God-sent frenzy. And “Samuel” means “appointed for God.”
רס״ט
269[255] Why then, O soul, dost thou any longer trifle and engage in profitless labours, and not rather become a pupil of the Practiser, and learn to use weapons and engage in wrestlings against passion and vainglory? For haply, when thou hast learned, thou shalt be a herdsman, not of a herd without mark, without reason, without discipline, but of one bearing the stamp of genuineness, endowed with reason, and with varied markings.
ר״ע
270[256] Shouldst thou become its leader, thou wilt bewail the pitiable race of men, but wilt never cease to approach the Deity with supplications; thou wilt never tire of proclaiming the blessedness of God, nay, wilt grave on pillars holy hymns, that thou mayest not only tell in eloquent language but also sing in sweet melody the excellences of Him that IS. For so shalt thou be able also to return to thy father’s house, and be quit of that long endless distress which besets thee in a foreign land.
