על עבודת האדמה מ׳On Husbandry 40
א׳
1[174] But there are others who, with every stitch of piety’s canvas spread, have used every effort to make a quick voyage, and to come to anchor in her harbours, and then, when they were no distance away, but on the very point of coming to land, a violent head-wind has suddenly burst upon them, and driven the vessel straight back, stripping her of much of the gear on which her seaworthiness depended.
ב׳
2[175] No one would find fault with these men for being still at sea; for the delay was contrary to their wish and befell them when they were making all speed. Who, then, resembles these men? Who but he who vowed what is called the great Vow? For he says: “If someone die suddenly beside him, the head of his vow shall forthwith be defiled, and he shall shave it.” Then, after a few more words, he adds, “The former days shall be void, because the head of his vow was defiled” (Numb. 6:9, 12).
ג׳
3[176] The involuntary nature of the soul’s failure is evidenced by both of the words which he uses, “sudden” and “forthwith,” for whereas in the case of deliberate sins time is required for planning where and when and how the thing is to be done, unintentional sins swoop upon us suddenly, without thought, and if we may so say, in no time.
ד׳
4[177] For it is difficult for the runners, as we may call them, after starting on the way to piety, to finish the whole course without stumbling, and without stopping to draw breath; for every man born meets ten thousand obstacles.
ה׳
5[178] The first need then, which is the one and only thing that is “well-doing,” is never to put hand to any deliberate wrong-doing, and to have strength to thrust from us the countless host of voluntary offences; the second not to fall into many involuntary offences, nor to continue long in the practice of them.
ו׳
6[179] Right well did he say that the days of the involuntary failure were void (ἀλόγους) not only because to sin is void of reason (ἄλογον) but also because it is impossible to render an account (λόγον) of involuntary sins. Accordingly, when people inquire after the motives for things that have been done, we often say that we neither know nor are able to tell them: for that when they were being done we were not taken into confidence, nay, that they arrived without our knowing it.
ז׳
7[180] ’Tis a rare event then if God shall vouchsafe to a man to run life’s course from beginning to end without slackening or slipping, and to avoid each kind of transgressions, voluntary and involuntary, by flying past them, in the vehement rush of matchless speed.
ח׳
8[181] These remarks on beginning and end have been made apropos of Noah the righteous man who, after making himself master of the elements of the science of husbandry, had not the strength to reach its final stages, for it is said that “he began to be a husbandman,” not that he reached the furthest limits of full knowledge. What is said about his work as a planter let us tell at another time.