על שהרע נוהג לארוב לטוב ו׳That the Worse is wont to Attack the Better 6
א׳
1[15] Now you notice that Scripture goes out of its way to record even the place from which he dispatches him, all but giving the reader a plain hint to avoid the literal interpretation. For it says “out of the vale of Hebron” (Gen. 37:14). Now “Hebron,” a “coupling” and “comradeship,” is a figurative title for our body, because it is “coupled” with a soul, and has established a friendship and “comradeship” with it. As “vales” it has organs of sense, great receivers of all objects of sense outside it. These pump over the understanding the countless qualities of things, and pour them in upon it through the receivers, flooding it and totally submerging it.
ב׳
2[16] This is why in the Law of Leprosy, when greenish or reddish depressions show themselves in a house, an injunction is given to remove the stones in which they have appeared and to put others in their place (Lev. 14:57 ff.). That is to say, when diverse qualities, the handiwork of pleasures and desires and passions akin to these, press and weigh down the whole soul, hollowing it out and lowering its level, we are to get rid of the principles which cause the infirmity, and introduce in their place good healthy principles by means of a training under the law or indeed of a good education.