על הזיווג לשם ההשכלה (על לימודי היסוד) י״טOn Mating with the Preliminary Studies 19
א׳
1[102] So too it is only natural that in the matter of sacrifices the tenths of the measure of fine flour should be brought with the victims to the altar (Ex. 29:40), while the numbers up to nine, what is left by the tenth, remain with ourselves.
ב׳
2And the recurrent oblation of the priests is in agreement with this;
ג׳
3[103] they are commanded to offer always the tenth of the ephah of fine flour (Lev. 6:20), for they have learned to rise above the ninth, the seeming deity, the world of sense, and to worship Him who is in very truth God, who stands alone as the tenth.
ד׳
4[104] For to the world belong nine parts, eight in heaven, one of the stars which wander not and seven of those that wander, though the order of their wandering is ever the same, while earth with water and air make the ninth, for the three form a single family, subject to changes and transformations of every kind.
ה׳
5[105] Now the mass of men pay honour to these nine parts and to the world which is formed from them, but he that has reached perfection honours Him that is above the nine, even their maker God, who is the tenth. For he continues to soar above all the artificer’s work and desire the artificer Himself, ever eager to be His suppliant and servant. That is why the priest offers recurrently a tenth to Him who is tenth and alone and eternal.
ו׳
6[106] We find this “ten” plainly stated in the story of the soul’s passover, the crossing from every passion and all the realm of sense to the tenth, which is the realm of mind and of God; for we read “on the tenth day of this month let everyone take a sheep for his house” (Ex. 12:3), and thus beginning with the tenth day we shall sanctify to Him that is tenth the offering fostered in the soul whose face has been illumined through two parts out of three, until its whole being becomes a brightness, giving light to the heaven like a full moon by its increase in the second week. And thus it will be able not only to keep safe, but to offer as innocent and spotless victims its advances on the path of progress.
ז׳
7[107] We find the same in the propitiation which is established on the tenth day of the month (Lev. 23:27), when the soul is suppliant to God the tenth, and is schooled to know the humiliation and nothingness of its trust in the sagacity of a created reason, and how transcendent and supreme is the Uncreated in all that is good. And so He becomes propitious, and propitious even at once without their supplication, to those who afflict and belittle themselves and are not puffed up by vaunting and self-pride.
ח׳
8[108] We find it in the “release” (Lev. 25:9 ff.), in the perfect freedom of soul which shakes off the wandering of its past and finds a new harbour in the nature which wanders not, and returns to the heritages which it received in the years when the breath of its spirit was fresh and strong, and travail which has the good for its prize exercised its energy. For then the holy word, in admiration of its efforts, honoured it, and gave it a special guerdon, an undying heritage, its place in the order of the imperishable.
ט׳
9[109] We find it in the suppliant prayer of wise Abraham, who when fire was about to consume what is called the land of Sodom, but is in reality a soul barren of good and blind of reason, prayed that if there should be found in it that token of righteousness, the ten, it might receive some remission of punishment (Gen. 18:32). He begins indeed his supplication with fifty, the number of release, but ends with ten, which closes the possibility of redemption.