מי יורש קנייני אלוה י״בWho is the Heir of Divine Things 12
א׳
1[57] So we have two kinds of men, one that of those who live by reason, the divine inbreathing, the other of those who live by blood and the pleasure of the flesh. This last is a moulded clod of earth, the other is the faithful impress of the divine image.
ב׳
2[58] Yet this our piece of moulded clay, tempered with blood for water, has imperative need of God’s help, and thus we read “this Damascus Eliezer.” Now Eliezer interpreted is “God is my helper,” for this mass of clay and blood, which in itself is dissoluble and dead, holds together and is quickened as into flame by the providence of God, who is its protecting arm and shield, since our race cannot of itself stand firmly established for a single day.
ג׳
3[59] Observe, too, that the second son of Moses bears the same name. “The name of the second,” he says, “was Eliezer,” and then he adds the reason: “for the God of my father is my helper and delivered me from the hand of Pharoah” (Ex. 18:4).
ד׳
4[60] But those who still consort with the life of sense and blood suffer the attacks of the spirit so expert in scattering pious thoughts and deeds, the spirit called Pharoah, whose tyranny rife with lawlessness and cruelty it is impossible to escape, unless Eliezer be born in the soul and looks with hope to the help which God the only Saviour can give.
ה׳
5[61] Right well, too, does Moses describe Damascus as the son not of his father but of his mother, Masek, to shew us that the blood-soul, by which irrational animals also live, has kinship with the maternal and female line, but has no part in male descent.
ו׳
6[62] Not so was it with Virtue or Sarah, for male descent is the sole claim of her, who is the motherless ruling principle of things, begotten of her father alone, even God the Father of all. For “indeed,” it runs, “she is my sister from the father, not from the mother” (Gen. 20:12).
