על החלומות, ספר א ט׳On Dreams, Book I 9
א׳
1[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.”
ב׳
2[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.
ג׳
3[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.
ד׳
4[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.
ה׳
5[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.