על הבריחה והמציאה כ׳On Flight and Finding 20
א׳
1[106] The fourth and only remaining point of those proposed for consideration was the time prescribed for the return of the fugitives, namely, that of the death of the High Priest. If taken literally, this point presents, I feel, great difficulty. The penalty inflicted by law on those whose offences are identical is unequal, if some are to be fugitives for a longer, some for a shorter, period; for of the High Priests some are very long-lived,
ב׳
2[107] some the reverse; some are appointed in youth, some in old age; and of those guilty of unintentional homicide some went into exile at the outset of the High Priest’s priesthood, some when the holder of the sacred office was nearing his end. Thus some have been cut off from their native place for a very long time indeed, others merely for a day, it may be, after which they will arrive with their heads in the air, insolently laughing at the nearest relatives of those whom they have slain.
ג׳
3[108] Let us, then, have recourse to the scientific mode of interpretation which looks for the hidden meaning of the literal words, and we shall escape from the difficulty and be able to give a reasonable account of the matter. We say, then, that the High Priest is not a man, but a Divine Word and immune from all unrighteousness whether intentional or unintentional.
ד׳
4[109] For Moses says that he cannot defile himself either 109 for the father, the mind, nor for the mother, sense-perception (Lev. 21:11), because, methinks, he is the child of parents incorruptible and wholly free from stain, his father being God, who is likewise Father of all, and his mother Wisdom, through whom the universe came into existence;
ה׳
5[110] because, moreover, his head has been anointed with oil, and by this I mean that his ruling faculty is illumined with a brilliant light, in such wise that he is deemed worthy “to put on the garments.” Now the garments which the supreme Word of Him that is puts on as raiment are the world, for He arrays Himself in earth and air and water and fire and all that comes forth from these; while the body is the clothing of the soul considered as the principle of physical life, and the virtues of the wise man’s understanding.
ו׳
6[111] Moses also says that “he shall never remove the mitre” from his head; he shall not, that is to say, lay aside the kingly diadem, the symbol not of absolute sovereignty, but of an admirable viceroyalty; “nor” again “shall he rend his clothes” (Lev. 21:10);
ז׳
7[112] for the Word of Him that IS is, as has been stated, the bond of all existence, and holds and knits together all the parts, preventing them from being dissolved and separated; just as the principle of physical life, in so far as it has been endowed with power, suffers none of the parts of the body to be split or cut off contrary to nature, but, so far as in it lies, all the parts are complete, and maintain unbroken a mutual harmony and oneness; and, in like manner, the purified mind of the wise man preserves the virtues free from breach or hurt, linking in a yet firmer concord the affinity and fellowship which is theirs by nature.