על החלומות, ספר א י״בOn Dreams, Book I 12
א׳
1[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.
ב׳
2[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.
ג׳
3[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to his place” is implied the meeting with sacred Words of a kind from which the God Who is prior to all things has withdrawn, ceasing to extend visions that proceed from Himself, but only those that proceed from the potencies inferior to Him.
ד׳
4[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.