על השיכרות ל״אOn Drunkenness 31
א׳
1[119] There are also partial and particular gifts which it is fitting for God to give and for man to receive. These we shall find are the virtues and the activities which correspond to them. Our discovery of them one may almost say is timeless, because of the exceeding swiftness with which the Donor bestows His wonted gifts to the amazement of all,
ב׳
2[120] even of those who find nothing great in other things. Thus Isaac asks, “what is this which thou hast found quickly, my son?” marvelling at the speed with which the virtuous disposition has been attained. The receiver of God’s benefit answered rightly, “it is what the Lord God delivered to me” (Gen. 27:20). For the instructions and injunctions delivered through men are slow, but those that come through God are exceeding swift, outrunning even the swiftest movement of time.
ג׳
3[121] Now those described above are those who lead the song of prevailing might, the precentors of the choir which sings the hymn of victory and thanksgiving, while they who raise the song of weakness and defeat, leaders of the choir which sobs forth the wailing of the routed, are of another sort, men who deserve pity rather than reproaches, even as we pity those whose bodies are fatally stricken by nature, with whom the misfortune of their malady ever stands to prevent their finding health and safety.
ד׳
4[122] But some have failed not involuntarily, not because the nerves of their souls were feebler and because they were overpressed by the stouter might of their opponents, but because imitating those who hug their chains, they have voluntarily laid themselves at the feet of cruel masters, though they were born to freedom. And since in virtue of their free birth they could not be sold, they have—strange contrast—purchased and taken to them masters. Thus they are on a level with those who swill themselves insatiably with wine to the pitch of intoxication.
ה׳
5[123] For such deliberately and under no compulsion put the cup of strong drink to their lips, and so it is also with full deliberation that these men eliminate soberness from their soul and choose madness in its place. For so runs the text, “It is the voice of those who raise the song of wine that I hear,” that is, not the song of those on whom insanity has fallen through no will of their own, but of those who are possessed with the frenzy which they themselves have willed.
