על הכרובים ל״בOn the Cherubim 32
א׳
1[113] In this way combining all things He claimed the sovereignty of all for Himself; to His subjects He assigned the use and enjoyment of themselves and each other. For indeed we have ourselves and all that go to make these selves for use. I am formed of soul and body, I seem to have mind, reason, sense, yet I find that none of them is really mine.
ב׳
2[114] Where was my body before birth, and whither will it go when I have departed? What has become of the changes produced by life’s various stages in the seemingly permanent self? Where is the babe that once I was, the boy and the other gradations between boy and full-grown man? Whence came the soul, whither will it go, how long will it be our mate and comrade? Can we tell its essential nature? When did we get it? Before birth? But then there was no “ourselves.” What of it after death? But then we who are here joined to the body, creatures of composition and quality, shall be no more, but shall go forward to our rebirth, to be with the unbodied, without composition and without quality.
ג׳
3[115] Even now in this life, we are the ruled rather than the rulers, known rather than knowing. The soul knows us, though we know it not; it lays on us commands, which we must fain obey, as a servant obeys his mistress. And when it will, it will claim its divorce in court and depart, leaving our home desolate of life. Press it as we may to stay, it will escape from our hands. So subtle is it of nature, that it affords no grip or handle to the body.
