על הבריחה והמציאה ט״וOn Flight and Finding 15
א׳
1[77] After treating in this way of unintentional acts he goes on to legislate concerning assault and premeditation, saying, “If a man set upon his neighbour to slay him by guile and flee for refuge” (Exod. 21:14) to God, even to Him Who has been already symbolically called a place, Who is the occasion of life to all; for in another place likewise it says, “Whosoever shall flee there shall live” (Deut. 19:5).
ב׳
2[78] And is it not life eternal to take refuge with Him that IS, and death to flee away from Him? But if a man sets upon another he certainly deliberately commits a wrong, and that which is done intentionally with guile incurs guilt, even as, on the other hand, no blame attaches to the act in which there is no guile.
ג׳
3[79] Accordingly it is not right to say that any wrongs committed with secret hostility and with guile and as the result of premeditation are done as God ordains; they are done as we ordain. For as I have said, the treasuries of evil things are in ourselves; with God are those of good things only.
ד׳
4[80] Whosoever, therefore, takes refuge, that is, whosoever blames not himself but God for his sins, let him be punished, by being deprived of the refuge which is a place of deliverance and safety for suppliants only, namely the altar. Is not this meet and right? For the place of sacrifice is wholly occupied by victims free from blemish, that is by innocent and purified souls; and it is a blemish that can hardly, if at all, be remedied, to assert that the Deity is the cause of evil things as of all others.
ה׳
5[81] All such characters have made self-love their aim rather than love of God. Let them go forth outside the hallowed precincts, that in their foulness and uncleanness they may not behold even from afar the sacred flame of the soul ascending in unquenchable fire, and with power entire and unimpaired being sacrificed to God.
ו׳
6[82] In daring and noble language one of the wise men of old has brought out the truth which I am enforcing. “In no case and in no way,” he says, “is God unrighteous: He is absolute righteousness; and nothing exists more like Him than whoso of us in his turn attains to the greatest possible righteousness. It is by his relation to Him that a man’s real attainment is determined, as well as his worthlessness and failure to attain real manhood. For to know Him is true wisdom and virtue, and ignorance of Him is manifest stupidity and wickedness. All other seeming attainments and proofs of wisdom so called, if displayed in gaining political power, are merely vulgar; if in practising handicrafts, merely mechanical.”