על הבריחה והמציאה ט״זOn Flight and Finding 16
א׳
1[83] After directing, then, that the man who is profane and reviles things sacred be led away from the most holy spots and given up to punishment, he goes on to say, “He that smiteth father or mother, let him die,” and likewise “he that revileth father or mother, let him die” (Exod. 21:15 f.).
ב׳
2[84] He as good as proclaims in a loud voice that no pardon must be granted to a blasphemer against God. For if those who have reviled mortal parents are led away for execution, what penalty must we consider that those have merited who take upon them to blaspheme the Father and Maker of the universe? And what more foul reviling could be uttered than the statement, that the origination of evil lies not at our door but at God’s? Drive off,
ג׳
3[85] then, ye initiates and hierophants of holy mysteries, drive off the motley crowd, flotsam and jetsam, souls hardly capable of cleansing and purifying, carrying about wherever they go ears ever unclosed, and tongue ever unconfined, ready instruments of their miserable condition in their longing to hear all that heaven forbids us to hear, and to tell out such things as should never find utterance.
ד׳
4[86] But all who have been trained to discriminate between intentional and unintentional actions, and have been given lips that can keep a holy silence in place of a reviling tongue, are praiseworthy when they go aright, and are not much to blame when they fail without meaning it: that is why cities of refuge were set apart for them (Num. 35.).