על חיי משה, ספר ב כ״זOn the Life of Moses, Book II 27
א׳
1[136] Outside the propylaeum, at the entrance, there was a brazen laver, for the making of which the master did not take unworked material, as is usually done, but chattels already elaborately wrought for another purpose. These the women brought, filled with fervent zeal, rivalling the men in piety, resolved to win the prize of high excellence, and eager to use every power that they had that they might not be outstripped by them in holiness.
ב׳
2[137] For, with spontaneous ardour at no other bidding than their own, they gave the mirrors which they used in adorning their comely persons, a truly fitting firstfruit offering of their modesty and chastity in marriage, and in fact of their beauty of soul.
ג׳
3[138] These the master thought good to take, and, after melting them down, construct therewith the laver and nothing else, to serve for lustration to priests who should enter the temple to perform the appointed rites, particularly for washing the hands and feet; a symbol, this, of a blameless life, of years of cleanliness employed in laudable actions, and in straight travelling, not on the rough road or more properly pathless waste of vice, but on the smooth high road through virtue’s land.
ד׳
4[139] Let him, he means, who shall be purified with water, bethink him that the mirrors were the material of this vessel, to the end that he himself may behold his own mind as in a mirror; and, if some ugly spot appear of unreasoning passion, either of pleasure, uplifting and raising him to heights which nature forbids, or of its converse pain, making him shrink and pulling him down, or of fear, diverting and distorting the straight course to which his face was set, or of desire, pulling and dragging him perforce to what he has not got, then he may salve and heal the sore and hope to gain the beauty which is genuine and unalloyed.
ה׳
5[140] For beauty of body lies in well-proportioned parts, in a fine complexion and good condition of flesh, and short is the season of its bloom. But beauty of mind lies in harmony of creed, in concent of virtues. The passing of time cannot wither it, and, as its years lengthen, it ever renews its youth, adorned with the lustrous hue of truth and of consistency of deeds with words and words with deeds, and further of thoughts and intentions with both.