על הכרובים כ״דOn the Cherubim 24
א׳
1[77] For it was “the enemy,” as we read, who said “I will pursue and overtake.” What deadlier foe to the soul can there be than he who in his vainglory claims to himself that which belongs to God alone? For it belongs to God to act, and this we may not ascribe to any created being.
ב׳
2[78] What belongs to the created is to suffer, and he who accepts this from the first, as a necessity inseparable from his lot, will bear with patience what befalls him, however grievous it may be. He who thinks it a strange and alien thing will incur the penalty of Sisyphus, crushed by a vast and hopeless burden, unable even to lift his head, overwhelmed by all the terrors which beset and prostrate him, and increasing each misery by that abject spirit of surrender, which belongs to the degenerate and unmanly soul. Rather should he bravely bear, take his place firmly in the opposing ranks, and with those mightiest of virtues, which he himself contributes, patience and endurance, fortify his resolution and close the gates against the foe.
ג׳
3[79] There are two ways of undergoing shearing or shaving; one when there is reaction and reciprocation by the object, the other when there is complete submission or subjection. A sheep or a fleece or a “fell” puts forth no activity of itself, but is merely passive to the shearing process in the hands of another, but the man who is shaved acts with the barber, places himself in position, and accommodates himself, thus combining the active with the passive.
ד׳
4[80] So too with receiving blows. There is one kind which befalls a slave, whose wrongdoing has deserved it, or a free man who is stretched on the wheel for his crimes, or any lifeless things, such as stones or wood or gold or silver and all materials which are beaten or divided in a forge.
ה׳
5[81] The other kind we find in the case of an athlete in a boxing-match or pancratium for a crown of victory. As the blows fall upon him he brushes them off with either hand, or he turns his neck round this way and that and thus evades the blows, or often he rises on his tip-toes to his full height, or draws himself in and compels his adversary to lay about him in empty space, much as men do when practising the movements. But the slave or the metal lies impotent and irresponsive, passive to endure whatever the agent may determine to execute.
ו׳
6[82] This is a condition we should never admit into our bodies, much less into our souls. As mortals we must suffer, but let our suffering be that other kind which is the reaction of our own activity. Let us not like womanish folk, nerveless and unstrung, flagging ere the struggle begin, with all our spiritual forces relaxed, sink into utter prostration. Rather let the tension of our minds be firm and braced, that so we may be strong to relieve and lighten the force and onset of the misfortunes which menace us.
ז׳
7[83] Since then it has been shown that no mortal can in solid reality be lord of anything, and when we give the name of master we speak in the language of mere opinion, not of real truth; since too, as there is subject and servant, so in the universe there must be a leader and a lord, it follows that this true prince and lord must be one, even God, who alone can rightly claim that all things are His possessions.
