על השיכרות נ׳On Drunkenness 50
א׳
1[206] This topic has now been sufficiently discussed. Let us turn our discussion to what follows next. We said that one thing signified by drunkenness is that gluttony whose great power for mischief is so widespread and constant, which leaves those who indulge in it, as we may see, with a void in their desires, even though they have every vacant place in their bodies filled.
ב׳
2[207] Such persons, when glutted and satiated by the quantities they have engorged, may for a while like weary-limbed athletes give their bodies a breathing-space, but ere long they make themselves ready to take part in the same encounter.
ג׳
3[208] So we see the King of Egypt, that is of the body, though he seemed to be angry with the cup-bearer who ministered to his drunkenness, represented in the holy books as being reconciled to him after a short time. He remembered the passion which excited his desires on his birthday—the day of his birth into a being destined to perish—not on the day of the light, which has no birth, a day which perishes not. For we are told that it was Pharaoh’s birthday (Gen. 40:20) when he sent for the chief cup-bearer from the prison to pour the cup of reconciliation.
ד׳
4[209] It is characteristic of the friend of passion that things created and perishable seem to him bright and shining, because in relation to knowledge of things imperishable, he dwells in night and profound darkness, and therefore at once he welcomes the drunkenness which brings pleasure in its train and him who is the minister of drunkenness.
