על החלומות, ספר א כ״בOn Dreams, Book I 22
א׳
1[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).
ב׳
2[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.
ג׳
3[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?
ד׳
4[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.
ה׳
5[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.
ו׳
6[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.
ז׳
7[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.
ח׳
8[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.
ט׳
9[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.
י׳
10[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.
י״א
11[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.
י״ב
12[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.
י״ג
13[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 ?