על שהרע נוהג לארוב לטוב ז׳That the Worse is wont to Attack the Better 7
א׳
1[17] Seeing, therefore, that Joseph has utterly sunk into the hollows of the body and the senses, he challenges him to quit his lurking-place and go forward and draw a free draught of the spirit of stedfastness by resorting to those who were once aspirants after it, and are now teachers of it. But he, though he fancied that he had made a move forward, is found wandering: for he says, “a man found him wandering in the plain” (Gen. 37:15), showing that toil by itself is not good, but toil accompanied by skill.
ב׳
2[18] For just as it is our business not to practise music unmusically or grammar ungrammatically, or, to say it in a word, any art without art or with bad art, but to practise each art in the way which that art requires, so neither is it our business to practise good sense with cunning, or self-mastery with stinginess and meanness, or courage with rashness, or piety in a superstitious way, or any other virtue-governed knowledge in a spirit of ignorance; for everyone knows that these are trackless regions. Accordingly there is a law bidding us “follow what is just in a just way” (Deut. 16:20), that we pursue justice and all virtue by doing the deeds akin to it, but not those that are contrary to it.
ג׳
3[19] If then thou observest anyone not taking food or drink when he should, or refusing to use the bath and oil, or careless about his clothing, or sleeping on the ground, and occupying wretched lodgings, and then on the strength of all this fancying that he is practising self-control, take pity on his mistake, and show him the true method of self-control; for all these practices of his are fruitless and wearisome labours, prostrating soul and body by starving and in other ways maltreating them.
ד׳
4[20] A man may submit to sprinklings with holy water and to purifications, befouling his understanding while cleansing his body; he may, having more money than he knows what to do with, found a temple, providing all its furniture on a scale of lavish magnificence; he may offer up hecatombs, and never cease sacrificing bullocks; he may adorn the sacred building with costly votive offerings, employing on them rich material in abundance, and skilled craftsmanship that is more priceless than silver and gold;
ה׳
5[21] yet shall he not be inscribed on the roll of the pious. No, for this man, like those others, has gone astray from the road that accords with piety, deeming it to be ritual instead of holiness, and offering gifts to Him who cannot be bribed and will not accept such things, and flattering Him who cannot be flattered, who welcomes genuine worship of every kind, but abhors all counterfeit approaches. Genuine worship is that of a soul bringing simple reality as its only sacrifice; all that is mere display, fed by lavish expenditure on externals, is counterfeit.