על החלומות, ספר ב מ״אOn Dreams, Book II 41
א׳
1[268] But occasions often arise which ill accord with silence and call for speech in song or prose, and of such, too, we may find instructive examples in the same storehouse. How so? Suppose some portion of good has fallen to us unexpectedly. It is well then to give thanks and hymn the sender.
ב׳
2[269] And what is that good? Suppose that the passion which was attacking us is dead and has been flung out headlong without burial. Let us not delay, but setting in order our choir raise the most sacred of anthems, bidding all to say “Let us sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. Horse and rider he hath cast into the sea” (Ex. 15:1).
ג׳
3[270] But though, no doubt, the destruction and removal of passion is a good, yet it is not a perfect good, but the discovery of wisdom is a thing of transcendent excellence. And when that is discovered, all the people will sing not with one part of music only, but with all its harmonies and melodies.
ד׳
4[271] For “then,” says the text, “Israel sang this song upon the well” (Num. 21:17), and by the “well” I mean knowledge, which for long has been hidden, but in time is sought for and finally found—knowledge whose nature is so deep, knowledge which ever serves to water the fields of reason in the souls of those who desire to see.
ה׳
5[272] Again when we reap the true harvest of the mind, does not the holy Word bid us bring, stored in the basket (Deut. 26:2, 4) of our reasoning faculties, the firstfruits of that rich crop of things excellent, the product of the flowering, the sprouting, the fruit-bearing of ourselves, and as we display them pronounce with words of forthright oratory our laudings of God who gives fulfilment, in such words as these: “I have purged the things hallowed from my home and stored them in the house of God (ibid. 13) under the stewardship and guardianship of those who have been chosen for their high merit to the sacred temple-ministry.”
ו׳
6[273] These are the Levites and the proselytes, the orphans and widows (ibid.); the first suppliants, the second those who have left their homes and taken refuge with God, the others those who are as orphans and widows to creation, and have adopted God as the lawful husband and father of the servant-soul.
