על החלומות, ספר א ט״וOn Dreams, Book I 15
א׳
1[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.).
ב׳
2[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.
ג׳
3[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.
ד׳
4[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.
ה׳
5[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).
ו׳
6[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.
ז׳
7[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.