על הזיווג לשם ההשכלה (על לימודי היסוד) כ״אOn Mating with the Preliminary Studies 21
א׳
1[114] Such too is that tribute of the princes, chosen as the best that they had, which they offered when the soul, equipped by the love of wisdom, celebrated its dedication in right holy fashion, giving thanks to the God who was its teacher and guide. For the worshipper offers “a censer of ten gold weights, full of incense” (Num. 7:14, 20, etc.), that God who alone is wise might choose the perfumes exhaled by wisdom and every virtue.
ב׳
2[115] And when these perfumes are pleasant in His judgement, Moses will celebrate them in a hymn of triumph in the words “The Lord smelt a scent of sweet fragrance” (Gen. 8:21). Here he uses smell in the sense of accept, for God is not of human form, nor has need of nostrils or any other parts as organs.
ג׳
3[116] And further on he will speak of God’s dwelling-place, the tabernacle, as being “ten curtains” (Ex. 26:1), for to the structure which includes the whole of wisdom the perfect number ten belongs, and wisdom is the court and palace of the All-ruler, the sole Monarch, the Sovereign Lord.
ד׳
4[117] This dwelling is a house perceived by the mind, yet it is also the world of our senses, since he makes the curtains to be woven from such materials as are symbolical of the four elements; for they are wrought of fine linen, of dark red, of purple and of scarlet, four in number as I said. The linen is a symbol of earth, since it grows out of earth; the dark red of air, which is naturally black; the purple of water, since the means by which the dye is produced, the shell-fish which bears the same name, comes from the sea; and the scarlet of fire, since it closely resembles flame.
ה׳
5[118] Again rebellious Egypt, when it glorified the mind which usurps the place of God, and bestowed on it the emblems of sovereignty, the throne, the sceptre, the diadem, is admonished through ten plagues and punishments by the Guardian and Ruler of all.
ו׳
6[119] In the same way He promises to wise Abraham that He will work the ruin and complete destruction of just ten nations, neither more nor less, and will give the land of the victims to his descendants (Gen. 15:18–20). Thus everywhere he thinks well to extend the meaning of the ten, to cover both praise and blame, honour and chastisement.
ז׳
7[120] But why note such examples as these, when the holy and divine law is summed up by Moses in precepts which are ten in all, statutes which are the general heads, embracing the vast multitude of particular laws, the roots, the sources, the perennial fountains of ordinances containing commandments positive and prohibitive for the profit of those who follow them?