על שינוי השמות ל״טOn the Change of Names 39
א׳
1[216] We do well indeed then when we pray that this Ishmael may live. And so he adds “before God,” holding that in this lies the crown of happiness—that the mind should be privileged to live under the survey and watchful care of the Supreme Excellence.
ב׳
2[217] For when the tutor is present his charge will not go amiss; the teacher at the learner’s side brings profit to him; the company of his senior gives to the youth the grace of modesty and self-control; the mere sight of father or mother can silently prevent the son from some intended wrongdoing. Imagine then the vastness of the blessings which we must suppose will be his who believes that the eye of God is ever upon him, for if he reverences the dignity of Him who is ever present, he will in fear and trembling fly from wrongdoing with all his might.
ג׳
3[218] But when he prays that Ishmael may live he does not despair of the birth of Isaac, as I have said before, but while he has trusted in God 〈he recognizes the weakness of humanity〉, for the gifts which God can give are not all such as man in his turn can receive, since for Him it is easy to bestow gifts, ever so many, ever so great, but for us it is no light matter to receive the proffered boons.
ד׳
4[219] For it is enough for us to obtain the good fruits of toil and effort, those more familiar gifts which grow up with us, but such as spring up independently without art or any form of human devising, which come ready-made to the recipient, we cannot even hope to attain. These are gifts of God, and therefore to discover them is the inevitable destiny of natures closer to God and undefiled and released from the mortal body.
ה׳
5[220] Yet Moses taught us to make our acknowledgements of thanks according to the power of our hands (Num. 6:21), the man of sagacity dedicating his good sense and prudence, the master of words consecrating all the excellences of speech in praises to the Existent in poem or prose, and from others offerings after their kind, natural philosophy, ethical philosophy, the lore of the arts and sciences from the several students of the same.
ו׳
6[221] In this way the sailor will dedicate success of voyage, the husbandman fruitfulness of crops, the herdsman the teeming increase of his livestock, the physician the health of his patients, or again the general his victory in war, the statesman or crowned head his lawful pre-eminence or sovereignty, and in short he who is not self-centred will avow as the cause of all goods of the soul or body or outside the body Him who in very truth is the one sole Cause of aught.
ז׳
7[222] Let none then of the lowly or obscure in repute shrink through despair of the higher hope from thankful supplication to God, but even if he no longer expects any greater boon, give thanks according to his power for the gifts which he has already received.
ח׳
8[223] Vast is the number of such gifts, birth, life, nurture, soul, sense-perception, mental picturing, impulse, reasoning. Now “reasoning” as a name is but a little word, but as a fact it is something most perfect and most divine, a piece torn off from the soul of the universe, or, as it might be put more reverently following the philosophy of Moses, a faithful impress of the divine image.