על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר א נ״וOn the Special Laws, Book I 56
א׳
1[303] Yet out of the whole human race He chose as of special merit and judged worthy of pre-eminence over all, those who are in a true sense men, and called them to the service of Himself, the perennial fountain of things excellent, from which He sends the shower of the other virtues gushing forth to give drink, delicious and most beneficial, and conferring immortality as much as or more than nectar.
ב׳
2[304] Pitiable and miserable are all those who have not feasted to the full on virtue’s draught, and greatest is the lasting misery of those who have never tasted the cup of noble living when they might revel in the delights of righteousness and holiness.
ג׳
3But some are uncircumcised in heart, says the law, and through their hardness of temper disobedient to the rein, plunging in unruly fashion and fighting against the yoke.
ד׳
4[305] These he admonishes with the words, “Circumcise the hardness of your hearts!” make speed, that is, to prune away from the ruling mind the superfluous overgrowths sown and raised by the immoderate appetites of the passions and planted by folly, the evil husbandman of the soul. And let not your neck be hard,
ה׳
5[306] he continues: that is, let not your mind be unbending and exceedingly unruly, nor in its much frowardness pursue that wilful ignorance which is so fraught with mischief, but casting aside as an enemy all that is naturally indocile and intractable, change over to docility, ready to obey the laws of nature.
ו׳
6[307] Cannot you see that the primal and chief powers belonging to the Existent are the beneficent and the punitive? And the beneficent is called God because by this He set out and ordered the world; the other is called Lord, being that by which He is invested with the sovereignty of all that is. But He is the God not only of men but also of gods, and the ruler not only of commoners but of rulers, and being truly existent, He is great and strong and mighty.