על הבריחה והמציאה כ״אOn Flight and Finding 21
א׳
1[113] The High Priest, so Moses says, “shall not go in to any dead soul” (Lev. 21:11). Death of soul is a life in the company of vice, so that what is meant is that he is never to come in contact with any polluting object, and of these folly always stinks.
ב׳
2[114] To him there is betrothed moreover a maiden of the hallowed people, pure and undefiled and of ever inviolate intention; for never is he wedded to a widow or one divorced or to a profane woman or to a harlot (ibid. 13 f.), but against them he ever wages a truceless and unrelenting warfare. For hateful to him is widowhood from virtue, and the plight of one cast out and driven from her doors, and any conviction that is profane and unholy. But the promiscuous, polyandrous cause of polytheism, or rather atheism, the harlot, he deigns not even to look at, having learned to love her who had adopted, as her one Husband and Father, God the All-sovereign.
ג׳
3[115] In this character we see perfection in something like its highest form. On the other hand, as to the man who has vowed the Great Vow, the lawgiver seems to recognize that he does stumble unintentionally, even if not with deliberate intent; for he says, “If one die by him suddenly, he shall at once be defiled” (Num. 6:9): for that which suddenly swoops down upon us from without, apart from any wish of our own, defiles the soul at once, though not for an interminable period, owing to its being unintentional. But with such involuntary defilements, even as with those that are voluntary, the High Priest has no concern, but stands far up beyond their reach.
ד׳
4[116] The observations which I have been making are lie not beside the mark, but are meant to shew that the fixing of the High Priest’s death as the term for the return of the exiles is in perfect accordance with the natural fitness of things (Num. 35:25).
ה׳
5[117] For so long as this holiest Word is alive and is still present in the soul, it is out of the question that an unintentional offence should come back into it; for this holy Word is by nature incapable of taking part in and of admitting to itself any sin whatever. But if the Word die, not by being itself destroyed, but by being withdrawn out of our soul, the way is at once open for the return of unintentional errors; for if it was abiding within us alive and well when they were removed, assuredly when it departs and goes elsewhere they will be reinstated.
ו׳
6[118] For the Monitor, the undefiled High Priest, enjoys as the fruit of his nature the special prerogative of never admitting into himself any uncertainty of judgement. Wherefore it is meet that we should pray that He who is at once High Priest and King may live in our soul as Monitor on the seat of justice, seeing that he has received for his proper sphere the entire court of our understanding, and faces unabashed all who are brought up for judgement there.