על שהרע נוהג לארוב לטוב כ״חThat the Worse is wont to Attack the Better 28
א׳
1[104] For this reason he shall “work” the earth (Gen. 4:12), not “till” it: for every tiller of the soil is a skilled workman, since tilling, too, is a matter of skill, but plenty of untrained men are workers on the soil, plying the task of unskilled labourers to procure the necessaries of life. These people do much mischief in their agricultural operations from not having found anyone to direct them; and if they do anything well, they succeed by accident, not with the aid of reason; but the scientific labours of the tillers of the soil are all of necessity beneficial.
ב׳
2[105] This explains why the lawgiver ascribed to righteous Noah the skilled trade of a tiller of the soil (Gen. 9:20), wishing to bring out the truth that, just as a good husbandman does, the man of sound character in dealing with trees in a wild state cuts away all harmful shoots grown from passions or vices, leaving such as, though not fruit-bearing, can serve as a wall and be a most firm fence of the soul: while, on the other hand, he tends all the cultivated trees, not by the same but by different methods, taking away from some, making additions to others, making some larger, and reducing others in size.
ג׳
3[106] And now I come to an illustration that particularly interests me. Noticing a luxuriant vine he will bend down its tendrils to the ground, dig trenches, throw the soil back to cover them. In a short time these become wholes instead of parts, mothers instead of daughters. Not only so, but they relieve the mother who bore them of the burden of old age. For, released from a task which used to impoverish and weaken her, that of dividing up her sustenance and distributing it to her numerous progeny, these having now become capable of drawing sustenance from themselves, after many a set-back she gets the nourishment she needs, and enriched by it renews her youth.
ד׳
4[107] I have watched another man dealing with cultivated trees. He would cut away all that was above ground of a poor one among these, leaving a very small portion of it close to the roots projecting. Then, taking a well-grown branch from another tree of good stock, he would pare this away at one end as far as the pith, make an incision in the shoot which he had docked near the roots, not of any great depth but just sufficient to make an opening for insertion. Then he would bring the branch which he had pared and fit it into the opening.
ה׳
5[108] The result is a single tree grown out of these two into one, each portion reciprocally benefiting the other. For the roots feed the branch grafted on them and save it from withering, and the branch, as a requital for its nourishment, bestows fruitfulness on the roots.
ו׳
6There are in agriculture countless other operations requiring skill, which it would be out of place to mention just now. I have written at such length merely for the sake of making clear the difference between a labourer and a (skilled) agriculturalist.