על הכרובים כ״הOn the Cherubim 25
א׳
1[84] Let us mark how sublime and worthy of the Deity is the enumeration of those possessions. “All things,” God says, “are Mine.” And these “all things” are the “bounties, and gifts and fruits which ye shall observe and offer to Me at My feasts” (Numb. 28:2). Here Moses clearly shows that among existing things there are some which rank lower as benefits, and this benefit is called “giving.” In others the benefit is of a higher kind and this has the special name of “bounty.” Others again are such that not only can they bear virtue as their fruit, but in their very nature through and through they are fruit meet for eating, even that one and only fruit which feeds the soul of him whose quest is the Vision.
ב׳
2[85] He who has learnt this lesson, and can keep and ponder it in his heart, will offer to God the blameless and fairest sacrifice of faith at feasts which are no feasts of mortals. For God has claimed the feasts for Himself, and herein He lays down a principle which they who belong to the company of the philosophers must not fail to know.
ג׳
3[86] The principle is this. God alone in the true sense keeps festival. Joy and gladness and rejoicing are His alone; to Him alone it is given to enjoy the peace which has no element of war. He is without grief or fear or share of ill, without faint-heartedness or pain or weariness, but full of happiness unmixed. Or rather since His nature is most perfect, He is Himself the summit, end and limit of happiness. He partakes of nothing outside Himself to increase His excellence. Nay He Himself has imparted of His own to all particular beings from that fountain of beauty—Himself. For the good and beautiful things in the world could never have been what they are, save that they were made in the image of the archetype, which is truly good and beautiful, even the uncreate, the blessed, the imperishable.
