על הזיווג לשם ההשכלה (על לימודי היסוד) א׳On Mating with the Preliminary Studies 1
א׳
1[1] “Now Sarah the wife of Abraham was not bearing him children, but she had an Egyptian handmaiden named Hagar, and Sarah said to Abraham, ‘Behold the Lord hath closed me that I should not bear. Go in unto my handmaid and beget children from her’ ” (Gen. 16:1, 2).
ב׳
2[2] Now Sarah’s name is, by interpretation, “sovereignty of me,” and the wisdom in me, the self-control in me, the individual righteousness and each of the other virtues whose place is confined to the “me,” are a sovereignty over me only. That sovereignty rules and dominates me, who have willed to render obedience to it, in virtue of its natural queenship.
ג׳
3[3] This ruling power Moses represents as at once barren and exceedingly prolific, since he acknowledges that from her sprang the most populous of nations. A startling paradox, yet true. For indeed virtue is barren as regards all that is bad, but shews herself a fruitful mother of the good; a motherhood which needs no midwifery, for she bears before the midwife comes.
ד׳
4[4] Animals and plants bear the fruit proper to them only after considerable intervals, once or twice at most in the year, the number being determined for each by nature and adjusted to the seasons of the year. But virtue has no such intervals. She bears ceaselessly, successively, from moment to moment, and her offspring are no infants, but honest words, innocent purposes and laudable acts.