על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר א י״חOn the Special Laws, Book I 18
א׳
1[98] After saying this by way of prelude, he proceeds to lay down another statute commanding that he who approaches the altar and handles the sacrifices should not during the time in which it is his duty to perform the sacred rites drink wine or any other intoxicant, and this for four most cogent reasons: the dangers of slackness, forgetfulness, sleep and foolish behaviour.
ב׳
2[99] For strong drink enervates the bodily faculties, and makes the limbs more difficult to move, increases the tendency to sluggishness in a man, and irresistibly forces him to fall asleep, while by relaxing the sinews of the soul it produces both forgetfulness and foolish conduct. When he is sober, his bodily parts are buoyant and easier to move, the senses are clearer and brighter and the mind keener-sighted, so that it can foresee events and recount what it has seen in the past.
ג׳
3[100] In general, indeed, wine must be regarded as very unprofitable for every side of life, since it presses hard upon the soul, dulls the senses and weighs down the body, leaving none of our faculties free and untrammelled but hampering the natural activity of each. But in religious rites and ceremonies the mischief is graver in the same degree as it is more intolerable to offend against our duty to God than our duty to man. Thus it is a very proper enactment that the officiants at the sacrifice should fast from wine, “to discern and distinguish between holy and profane, clean and unclean,” lawful and unlawful.