על השיכרות נ״גOn Drunkenness 53
א׳
1[220] Observe that while all these three were shewn to be eunuchs and unable to beget wisdom, it was the butler with whom the mind, whose kingdom is the belly, made his compact of peace. For the passion for wine is extraordinarily strong in mankind, and is unique in this, that it does not produce satiety. For whereas everyone is satisfied with a certain amount of sleep and food and sexual intercourse and the like, this is rarely so with strong drink, particularly among practised topers.
ב׳
2[221] They drink but do not slake their thirst and, while they begin with smaller cups, as they advance they call for the wine to be poured in larger goblets. And when they get mellow and well warmed, they lose all control of themselves, and put beakers and cans and whole basins to their lips and drain them at a draught until either they are overcome with deep sleep, or the influx of the liquor fills up the cavities and overflows.
ג׳
3[222] But even then the insatiable craving within them rages as if it were still starving. “For their vine is of the vine of Sodom,” as Moses says, “and their tendrils of Gomorrah, their grapes are grapes of gall, a cluster of bitterness to them. Their wine is the wrath of dragons and the incurable wrath of asps” (Deut. 32:32, 33). Sodom is indeed by interpretation barrenness and blindness, and Moses here likens to a vine and its produce those who are under the thrall of wine-bibbing and gluttony and the basest of pleasures.
ד׳
4[223] His inner meaning is of this kind. No plant of true gladness grows in the soul of the wicked, since it has no healthy roots, but such as were burnt to ashes, when God passed well-deserved sentence upon the impious, and the heavens rained instead of water the unquenchable flames of the thunderbolt. In such a soul all that grows is the lust which is barren of excellence, and blinded to all that is worthy of its contemplation, and this lust he compares to a vine; not that which is the mother of kindly fruits, but a vine which proves to be the bearer of bitterness and wickedness and villainy and wrath and anger and savage moods and tempers, the vine which stings the soul like vipers and venomous asps, and that sting none can cure.
ה׳
5[224] Let us pray that these may be averted, and implore the all-merciful God to destroy this wild vine and decree eternal banishment to the eunuchs and all those who do not beget virtue, and that while in their stead He plants in the garden of our souls the trees of right instruction, He may grant us fruits of genuine worth and true virility, and powers of reason, capable of begetting good actions and also of bringing the virtues to their fullness, gifted too with the strength to bind together and keep safe for ever all that is akin to real happiness.