על צאצאי קין מ״אOn the Posterity of Cain and his Exile 41
א׳
1[136] Rebecca, it says, went down to the spring to fill her pitcher, and came up again. For whence is it likely that a mind thirsting for sound sense should be filled save from the wisdom of God, that never-failing spring, its descent to which is an ascent in accordance with some innate characteristic of a true learner? For the teaching of virtue awaits those who come down from empty self-conceit, and taking them in its arms carries them to the heights with fair fame. It is with a view to this, as it seems to me, that God says to Moses, “Go, get thee down, and come up” (Exod. 19:24), implying that everyone who rightly gauges his own inferiority becomes more honourable in the estimation of those who can judge of reality.
ב׳
2[137] There is point in Hagar’s bringing a skin to the place of drawing water, whereas Rebecca brings a pitcher. She who belongs to the band of devotees of school-learning needs, as it were, certain bodily vessels of sense-perception—eyes, ears—for the acquirement of the results of study; for by those who love to learn the benefit of knowledge is gained from seeing much and hearing much. She who is filled with unalloyed wisdom has absolutely no need of any bulky leathern vessel: she that is enamoured of spiritual objects has learned by use of reason to rid herself completely of the body, which the water-skin represents. All she needs is just a pitcher, which is a figure of a vessel containing the ruling faculty as it pours forth like water its copious streams. Whether this faculty be brain or heart,
ג׳
3[138] we will leave experts in these matters to discuss. The keen scholar on seeing that from wisdom, that Divine spring, she has drawn knowledge in its various forms, runs towards her, and, when he meets her, beseeches her to satisfy his thirst for instruction. She has been taught the chief of all lessons, ungrudging generosity, and at once holds out to him the water of wisdom, and bids him take a deep draught, calling the servant as she does this “Sir” or “Master.” Here we have that highest of truths that only the wise man is free and a ruler, albeit he may have ten thousand masters of his body.