על השיכרות כ״גOn Drunkenness 23
א׳
1[93] After discussing the four classes of sons, we must not overlook the following point, which will be the clearest proof that our classification is based on a correct division. The son who is puffed up and carried away by his folly is denounced by his parents as “this son of ours,” and it is in these words that they indicate his disobedience and recalcitrance.
ב׳
2[94] By using the word “this” in thus indicating him, they suggest that they have other children, who are obedient either to one or both of their parents. Such are the reasonings of the naturally gifted, of which Reuben is a type; the docile scholar, as Simeon, for his name means “hearing”; the suppliants who take refuge with God, and this is the company of the Levites; those who raise the hymn of thankfulness with their hearts rather than with their voices, and the leader of that choir is Judah; those who have been judged worthy of rewards and prizes because of their own free will they have toiled in the acquisition of virtue, as Issachar; those who have abandoned the Chaldean research of the supra-terrestrial to engage in the contemplation of the Uncreated, as Abraham; those who have acquired virtue through no other voice but their own and no teacher but themselves, as Isaac; those who are full of courage and strength and are dear to God, as Moses the most perfect of men.
