על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר א ל״טOn the Special Laws, Book I 39
א׳
1[212] Enough has now been said on the whole burnt-offering. We must now consider in its turn the preservation-offering. In this case it is a matter of indifference whether the victim is male or female. When it has been slain these three, the fat, the lobe of the liver and the two kidneys, are set apart for the altar, while the rest serves as a feast to be enjoyed by the person who has offered the sacrifice.
ב׳
2[213] But why these parts of the inwards are consecrated must be carefully considered, not neglecting the following point. In the course of my reflections I have often pondered deeply on this question also; what could be the reason why the law, when setting apart the lobe of the liver and the kidneys and the fat as a tribute reserved from the animals sacrificed, did not include either the heart or the brains, since the dominant principle resides in one or other of them.
ג׳
3[214] And I expect the same question will present itself to not a few of those who read the holy scriptures with their understanding rather than with their eyes. If such persons after examination find a more convincing reason, they will benefit both themselves and me; if not I beg them to consider whether that which has commended itself to my mind will stand the test. It is as follows. The dominant principle is the only part of us which admits and retains folly and injustice and cowardice and the other vices, and the home of this principle is one or other of the two just mentioned,
ד׳
4[215] namely, the brain and the heart. The holy word, therefore, thought good that the altar of God, by which is given absolution and complete remission of all sins and transgressions, should not be approached by the container in which mind had its lair when it came forth to tread the pathless wilds of injustice and impiety, turning away from the road which leads to virtue and noble conduct. For it would be foolish to have the sacrifices working remembrance instead of oblivion of sin. This seems to me the reason why neither of the parts which hold the pre-eminence, the brain or the heart, is brought to the altar.
ה׳
5[216] As for the parts which are actually prescribed, appropriate reasons can be given for the choice. The fat is the richest part and acts as a protection to the inwards, serving as a covering and a source of richness to them and benefiting them by the softness of its contact. The kidneys are chosen because of their relation to the testicles and generative organs; situated beside them they give them neighbourly assistance, and co-operate in promoting the easy passage of nature’s seed unimpeded by any of the adjacent parts. For the kidneys themselves are blood-coloured receptacles in which the moist off-scouring of the excrement is secreted, and contiguous to them are the testicles which create the stream of the semen. The lobe is a sample tribute from the most important of the inwards, the liver, by which the food is converted into blood and then being sluiced into the heart, is conveyed through the veins for the conservation of the whole body.
ו׳
6[217] For the orifice of the stomach being adjacent to the gullet receives the food which has been first bitten off by the teeth and afterwards masticated, and by its action prepares it for the stomach itself. This receives it from the orifice and performs the second office to which it has been appointed by nature, by turning it into juice. And from the stomach there are two pipe-shaped channels extending to the liver and draining the food into the receptacles which lie at intervals therein.
ז׳
7[218] Now the liver has two properties: it acts both as a sifter and a creator of blood. As a sifter it secretes all the hard and callous stuff into the adjacent bile-vessel, while in its other capacity by means of the heat which it contains it turns the pure liquid which has been strained off into blood full of life-giving powers, then presses this blood into the heart, whence, as we have said, it is sluiced into the veins, and coursing through the whole body becomes its sustenance.
ח׳
8[219] There is another point to be added to these statements. The liver has been made so as to lie high and be exceedingly smooth, and in virtue of its smoothness it plays the part of a mirror of the utmost brightness. In consequence when the mind withdrawing from its daytime cares, with the body paralyzed in sleep and the obstruction of every sense removed, begins to turn itself about and concentrate upon the pure observation of its concepts, it looks into the liver as into a mirror where it gains a lucid view of all that mind can perceive and, while its gaze travels round the images to see whether they contain any ugly defect, it eschews all such and selects their opposites, and so, well satisfied with all the visions presented to it, prophesies future events through the medium of dreams.