מי יורש קנייני אלוה ל״זWho is the Heir of Divine Things 37
א׳
1[179] I am deeply impressed, too, by the contrast made between the two he-goats offered for atonement, and the difference of fate assigned to them even when the division is effected by that uncertain and fortuitous divider, the lot. We see two ways of thinking; one whose concern is with things of divine virtue is consecrated and dedicated to God; the other whose aspirations turn to poor miserable humanity is assigned to creation the exile. For the lot which fell to creation is called by the oracles the lot of dismissal (Lev. 16:8), because creation is a homeless wanderer, banished far away from wisdom.
ב׳
2[180] Further, nature abounds in things which bear some shape or stamp and others which do not, even as it is with coins, and you may note how the invisible Severer divides them all into equal parts and awards those that are approved by their stamp to the lover of instruction, but those that have no stamp or mark to the man of ignorance. For we are told “the unmarked fell to Laban, but the marked to Jacob” (Gen. 30:42).
ג׳
3[181] For the soul is a block of wax, as one of the ancients said, and if it is hard and resistent it rejects and shakes off the attempted impressions and inevitably remains an unformed mass, whereas if it is docile and reasonably submissive it allows the imprints to sink deep into it, and thus reproducing the shape of the seal preserves the forms stamped upon it, beyond any possibility of effacement.
