על שינוי השמות ה׳On the Change of Names 5
א׳
1[39] These are men inspired with heaven-sent madness, men who have gone out into the wild. But there are others who have followed a tame and gentle wisdom, and such are both eminent in the practice of piety and do not despise human things. This is attested by the oracle in which it is said to Abraham, with God as speaker, “Be well pleasing before Me” (Gen. 17:1), that is, “be well pleasing not to Me only but to My works, while I as judge watch and survey thee.”
ב׳
2[40] For if you honour parents or show mercy to the poor or do kindness to your friends or defend your country or observe with care your duties to all men in general, you will surely be well pleasing to all with whom you have to do, but also well pleasing before God. For He with an eye that never sleeps beholds all things, and what is good He summons to Himself and approves with special favour.
ג׳
3[41] And therefore the Practiser in his prayer will show us the same truth. “The God,” he says, “to whom my fathers were well pleasing,” and adds “before Him” (Gen. 48:15) to show us the difference in fact between being pleasing “to Him” and “before Him.” The latter embraces both kinds of well pleasing, the former is confined to one only.
ד׳
4[42] And so Moses in his Exhortations charges them in these words: “Thou shalt do what is well pleasing before the Lord thy God” (Deut. 12:28), meaning do such things as shall be worthy to appear before God, and when seen to be approved by Him, and such deeds as these commonly extend to our fellow-men.
ה׳
5[43] It was this thought which prompted Moses when he wove the tabernacle, dividing its precincts into two, and set a curtain between the parts to distinguish the inner from the outer (Ex. 26:33); when too he gilded the sacred ark which holds the laws both within and without (Ex. 25:10), and gave the high priest two robes, the linen robe to be worn within, the many-coloured one with the long skirt to be worn outside (Ex. 28:4, Lev. 6:10).
ו׳
6[44] These and the like are symbols of a soul which in inward things is undefiled towards God and in outward things is pure towards the world of our senses and human life. And so those were fitting words which were said to the victorious wrestler when he was about to be crowned with garlands of triumph. For “Thou hast been strong with God and mighty with men” (Gen. 32:28) were the words which proclaimed his victory.
ז׳
7[45] To win honour in both spheres, in our duty both towards the uncreated and the created, requires no petty mind, but one which stands in very truth midway between the world and God. And in sum the man of worth should follow in the steps of God, for the Ruler and Father of all cares for His creatures.
ח׳
8[46] We all know that before the creation of the world God was sufficient unto Himself and that after the creation He remained the same, unchanged. Why then did He make the things which were not? Why, save because He was good and bountiful? Shall not then we His slaves follow our Master with profoundest awe and reverence for Him Who is the Cause, yet not forgetting the calls of our common humanity?