על השיכרות ל״בOn Drunkenness 32
א׳
1[124] Now everyone who comes near to the camp “sees the calf and the dance” (Exod. 32:19), as Moses himself shews. For all of us who have the deliberate purpose to stand close to the camp of the body find themselves in the company of vanity and its band of revellers. Whereas those who yearn for the Vision and long to behold things incorporeal are practisers of simplicity, and therefore it is their custom to make their dwelling as far as may be from the body.
ב׳
2[125] Pray then to God that thou mayest never become a leader in the wine song, never, that is, voluntarily take the first steps on the path which leads to indiscipline and folly. Voluntarily, I say, for involuntary evils are but half evils and lighter matters, since they have not upon them the sheer weight of convicting conscience.
ג׳
3[126] But if thy prayers are fulfilled thou canst no longer remain a layman, but wilt obtain the office which is the greatest of headships, the priesthood.
ד׳
4For it is the task of priests and ministers of God alone, or of hardly any others, to make the offering of sobriety, and in stedfastness of mind to resist the wine-cup and everything which causes folly.
ה׳
5[127] For “the Lord spake unto Aaron,” we read, “saying, Wine and strong liquor ye shall not drink, thou and thy sons after thee, whenever ye enter into the tabernacle of testimony, or approach the altar, and ye shall not die. It is an everlasting ordinance unto your generations, to make a difference between the holy and the profane and between the clean and the unclean” (Lev. 10:8–10).
ו׳
6[128] Now Aaron is the priest and his name means “mountainous.” He is the reason whose thoughts are lofty and sublime, not with the empty inflated bigness of mere vaunting, but with the greatness of virtue, which lifts his thinking above the heaven and will not let him cherish any reasoning that is mean and low. And being so minded he will never willingly allow strong wine or any potion which breeds folly to approach him.
ז׳
7[129] For he must either himself enter the tabernacle in mystic procession to accomplish the unseen rites, or come to the altar and there offer sacrifices of thanksgiving for private and public blessings. And these need sober abstinence and a close and ready attention.
