Judah Halevi

“ The Creator, however, creates limbs and endows them continually with their faculties. Let us imagine His solicitude and guidance removed only for one instant, and the whole world would suffer. If the religious person remembers this with every movement he first acknowledges the Creator's part in them, for having created and equipped them with the assistance necessary for their permanent perfection. This is as if the Divine Presence were with him continually, and the angels virtually accompanied him. ”

“ One person may die from a wound, whilst another person may recover from the same. How can we gauge whether it is the same? How can we take away the eye of a one-eyed person in order to do justice to a person with two eyes, when the former would be totally blind, the latter still have one eye? The Tōrāh teaches: As he hath caused a blemish in man, so shall be done to him. What further need is there to discuss these details, when we have just set forth the necessity of tradition, the truthfulness, loftiness, and religious zeal of traditionists? ”

“ The blessing, 'He who created the lights,' places before his eye the order of the upper world, the greatness of the heavenly bodies and their usefulness, that in the eyes of their Creator they are no greater than worms, though they appear to us immense on account of the profit we derive from them. The proof that He is their Creator may be found in the circumstance already mentioned, that His wisdom and power observable in the creation of the ant and bee is not less than in that of the sun and its sphere. ”

“ The traces of this providence and wisdom are finer and more wonderful in the ant and bee, because, in spite of their minuteness, He put faculties and organs into them. This he bears in mind lest the light appear to him too great, and an evil genius lead him to adopt some views of worshippers of spirits, and make him believe that the sun and moon are able to help or injure independently, whilst they can only assist to do so indirectly, like the wind and fire. ”

“ This is so striking that every one who looks at it with genuine scrutiny must be aware that mortal man is incapable of composing such a work without divine assistance. Only he who is hostile to it, who does not know it, and never endeavoured to read and study it, hearing some general and allegorical utterances of the Sages deems them senseless and defective, just as one who judges a person after meeting him, without having conversed with him for any length of time. ”

“ If thou considerest the degradation of a woman's surrender, or the ignominy of surrendering to a woman, thou wouldst say wonderingly: this is as vain as it is absurd. But when thou seest a being like thyself born of a woman, then dost thou marvel and notice that thou art one of the preservers of mankind created by God to inhabit the earth. ”

“ We might, eventually, create living beings, endowed with the spirit of life. Or we might produce a substitute for bread from ingredients which have no nourishing powers, simply by mixing the right proportions of heat and cold, moisture and dryness, and particularly if we knew the spherical constellations and their influences which, in the opinion of astrologers, assist to bring forth of anything that is desired in this world. ”

“ Thus he remains night and day, whilst his soul urges him to employ its innate powers in seeing, hearing, speaking, occupation, eating, cohabitation, gain, managing his house, helping the poor, upholding the law with money in case of need. Must he not regret those things to which he has tied his soul, a regret which tends to remove him from the Divine Influence, which he desired to approach? ”

“ Thy death is but the decay of thy body, whilst the soul having reached this step, cannot descend from it nor be removed. This will shew thee that the approach to God is only possible through the medium of God's command, and there is no road to the knowledge of the commands of God except by way of prophesy, but not by means of speculation and reasoning. There is, however, no other connexion between us and these commands except truthful tradition. ”

“ According to our view a servant of God is not one who detaches himself from the world, lest he be a burden to it, and it to him; or hates life, which is one of God's bounties granted to him, as it is written: 'The number of thy days I will fulfil'; ”

“ The fast of this day is such as brings one near to the angels, because it is spent in humility and contrition, standing, kneeling, praising and singing. All his physical faculties are denied their natural requirements, being entirely abandoned to religious service, as if the animal element had disappeared. The fast of a pious man is such that eye, ear, and tongue share in it, that he regards nothing except that which brings him near to God. ”

“ Impurity and holiness are contradictory ideas; one cannot be thought of without the other. Without holiness we should not know the signification of impurity. Impurity means that the approach to holy objects, hallowed by God, is forbidden to the person so affected. Such would be priests, their food, clothing, offering, sacrifices, the holy House, etc. In the same way the ideas of holiness include something which forbids the person connected with it to approach many ordinary objects. ”

“ His wisdom did not demand of Him to create angels on earth, but mortals of flesh and blood, in whom natural gifts and certain characteristics prevail according to favourable or unfavourable influences, as this is explained in the 'Book of Creation.' Whenever some few, or a whole community, are sufficiently pure, the divine light rests on them and guides in an incomprehensible and miraculous manner which is quite outside the ordinary course of the natural world. ”

“ All these ceremonies, the remission of sins on the Day of Atonement, the cleansing of the sanctuary from impurities by means of the he-goat of Azāzēl, with all accompanying ceremonies; the blessing of Israel through Aaron's uplifted hands and the reciting of the verse: 'the Lord bless thee'; upon every one of these ceremonies the Divine Influence rested. Religious ceremonies are, like the work of nature, entirely determined by God, but beyond the power of man. Formations of nature, are, as thou canst see, composed of accurately measured proportions of the four elements. ”

“ They produce in his soul a kind of pleasure and gratitude towards the Giver. He was prepared to give them up; now his pleasure is all the greater, and he says: 'He has kept us alive and preserved us.' He was prepared for death, now he feels gratitude for life, and regards it as gain. Should sickness and death overtake thee, they will be light, because thou hast communed with thyself and seen that thou gainest with thy Lord. According to thy nature thou art well fitted to abjure enjoyment, since thou art dust. Now He has presented thee with life and desire ”

“ One of the conditions of prayer, craving to be heard, is that its object be profitable to the world, but not hurtful in any way. Another is that an individual rarely accomplishes his prayer without slips and errors. It has been laid down, therefore, that the individual recite the prayers of a community, and if possible in a community of not less than ten persons, so that one makes up for the forgetfulness or error of the other. In this way [a complete prayer is gained, read with unalloyed devotion. Its blessing rests on everyone] each receiving his portion. ”

“ We know that the giving of comfort and the feeling of gratitude are as incumbent on us as is chastening of the soul by means of fasting and meekness; we also know that deceit, immoderate intercourse with women, and cohabitation with relatives are abominable; that honouring parents is a duty, etc. The limitation of all these things to the amount of general usefulness is God's. Human reason is out of place in matters of divine action, on account of its incapacity to grasp them. Reason must rather obey, just as a sick person must obey the physician in applying his medicines and advice. ”

“ But thou hast already proved to me that he who prays for attachment to the Divine Light, and the faculty of seeing it with his own eyes in this world, and who, nearly approaching the rank of prophets, is thus engaged in prayer--and nothing can bring man nearer to God than this--has without doubt prayed for more than the world to come. ”

“ He who is unable to grasp their wisdom, but judges their speech according to his own conception, will misinterpret them in the same way as people do with the words of natural philosophers and astronomers. ”

“ When they had become a people, the Divine Influence rested upon them out of love, 'in order to be a God unto them.' In the desert he arranged them in the manner of the sphere in four standards, corresponding to the four quarters of the sphere, and in twelve tribes, corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, the camp of the Levites being in the centre, just as it is stated in the 'Book of Creation.' 'The holy Temple is exactly in the centre, but God carries them all.' All this points to 'love' for the sake of which the blessing is recited. ”

“ Zeal in reproving 'thy neighbour,' and in study should not pass into wrath and hatred, disturbing the purity of his soul during prayer. He is deeply convinced of the 'justice of God's judgment.' He finds in it protection and solace from sorrow and the troubles of life if he is convinced of the justice of the Creator of all living creatures; He who sustains and guides them with a wisdom which the human intellect is only capable of grasping in a general way, but not in detail. ”

“ It was found that cohabitation was followed by the birth of a child; man, however, does but plant the seed in the soil prepared to receive and develop it. The calculation of proportions which give the human form belongs exclusively to the Creator. In the same manner is the determination of the living people worthy to form the seat of the Divine Influence God's alone. This calculating and weighing, must be learnt from Him, but we should not reason about His word, as it is written: 'There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord' (Prov. xxi. 30) . ”

“ Where they lead thee, there put thy faith, though thy mind and feeling shrink from it. Common view and assumption deny the non-existence of the vacuum, whilst logical conclusion rejects its existence. Appearance denies the infinite divisibility of a body, whilst logic makes it an axiom. Appearance denies that the earth is a globe and the one hundred and sixtieth part of the sun disc. ”

“ They only desire the society of disciples who stimulate their research and retentiveness, just as he who is bent upon making money would only surround himself with persons with whom he could do lucrative business. Such a degree is that of Socrates and those who are like him. There is no one nowadays who feels tempted to strive for such a degree, but when the Divine Presence was still in the Holy Land among the people capable of prophecy, some few persons lived an ascetic life in deserts and associated with people of the same frame of mind. ”

“ He who considers the formation, use and relation of the limbs to the animal instinct, sees wisdom in them and so perfect an arrangement that no doubt or uncertainty can remain in his soul concerning the justice of the Creator. ”

“ A diseased animal which externally looks in good health is unlawful, if it suffers internally from an incurable illness, with which it can neither live nor recover. Those who judge according to their own taste and reasoning may arrive in these matters at an opposite conclusion. Follow not, therefore, thy own taste and opinion in religious questions, lest they throw thee into doubts, which lead to heresy. Nor wilt thou be in harmony with one of thy friends on any point. Every individual has his own taste and opinion. ”

“ The pious man is nothing but a prince who is obeyed by his senses, and by his mental as well as his physical faculties, which he governs corporeally, as it is written: 'He that ruleth his spirit [is better] than he that taketh a city' (Prov. ”

“ The artificial is not like the natural. Religious deeds are, however, like nature. Being ignorant of their designs one thinks it but play till the results becomes apparent. Then one praises their guide and mover, and professes belief in him. Suppose thou hast heard nothing of cohabitation and its consequences, but thou feelest thyself attracted by the lowest of female organs. ”