על השיכרות י״גOn Drunkenness 13
א׳
1[51] And this or something very like it happens to many who have left the right path in their search for culture. For from the very cradle, we may say, they betake themselves to the most perfect of studies, philosophy, and afterwards deeming it wrong that they should have no tincture at all of the school subjects, bethink themselves to make a belated and painful effort to grasp them. And then having made their descent from the greater and older branch, philosophy, to the contemplation of the lesser and younger branches, they grow old in their company and thus lose all power of retracing their course to the place from which they started.
ב׳
2[52] And this, I think, is why Laban says, “bring to a consummation her week” (Gen. 29:27), meaning “let not the true good of the soul be thine unendingly, but let it have its term and limit, that so you may keep company with the younger order of goods in which are classed bodily beauty and glory and riches and the like.”
ג׳
3[53] But Jacob does not promise to bring her to a consummation, but agrees to “fulfil” (Gen. 29:28) her, that is never to cease pursuing what tends to her growth and completeness and always and everywhere to cleave to her, however great be the host of influences which draw and pull him in the opposite direction.
ד׳
4[54] That the rule of custom is followed by women more than men is, I think, quite clearly shewn by the words of Rachel, who looks with admiration only on that which is perceived by the senses. For she says to her father, “Be not wroth, sir; I cannot rise before thee, because the custom of women is upon me” (Gen. 31:35).
ה׳
5[55] So we see that obedience to custom is the special property of women. Indeed, custom is the rule of the weaker and more effeminate soul. For nature is of men, and to follow nature is the mark of a strong and truly masculine reason.
