על עשרת הדברות כ״הOn the Decalogue 25
א׳
1[132] The second commandment is to do no murder. For nature, who created man the most civilized of animals to be gregarious and sociable, has called him to shew fellowship and a spirit of partnership by endowing him with reason, the bond which leads to harmony and reciprocity of feeling. Let him, then, who slays another know full well that he is subverting the laws and statutes of nature so excellently enacted for the well-being of all.
ב׳
2[133] Further, let him understand that he is guilty of sacrilege, the robbery from its sanctuary of the most sacred of God’s possessions. For what votive offering is more hallowed or more worthy of reverence than a man? Gold and silver and costly stones and other substances of highest price serve as ornaments to buildings which are as lifeless as the ornaments themselves.
ג׳
3[134] But man, the best of living creatures, through that higher part of his being, namely, the soul, is most nearly akin to heaven, the purest thing in all that exists, and, as most admit, also to the Father of the world, possessing in his mind a closer likeness and copy than anything else on earth of the eternal and blessed Archetype.