על השיכרות ז׳On Drunkenness 7
א׳
1[24] Thus we read that the wise Abraham returned from the “cutting” of Chedorlaomer and his fellow kings (Gen. 14:17), while on the other hand Amalek “cuts the rearguard” of the Practiser (Deut. 25:18). Both these are in accordance with natural truth, for there is a hostility between opposites and they are always meditating destruction of each other.
ב׳
2[25] There is another charge, and that the greatest, which could be brought against the provider of the contributions. He purposes not only to wrong, but to join with others in wrongdoing. He consents to initiate evil himself, and also to comply with what others initiate, that thus he may leave himself no ray of hope that may serve for his redemption, since his sin lies both in his nature and in what he has learnt from others. And this in spite of the direct injunction of the law, not “to go with the many to do evil” (Exod. 23:2).
ג׳
3[26] For in very truth manifold are the aspects and the products of evil in men’s souls, while the good is narrowly confined and scanty. And so most excellent is the advice that we should not keep company with the many but with the few; for wrongdoing is the associate of the former, but right action of the latter.
