ing that He had neither similitude nor form, but that all this was only in an apparition of Prophecy, and in a vision. But the truth of the matter the human intellect cannot comprehend, nor attain unto, nor search out; and this is what the Scripture says: Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? (Job xi. 7). X. What then was that which Moses our Rabbi sought to attain unto when he said: I beseech Thee, shew me Thy glory, (Exod. xxxiii. 18.)? He sought to know the truth of the existence of the Holy One, blessed be He! to that degree that it might be known to his mind' in the same way as he would know any person, whose countenance

בוא וראה שאין מדותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא כמדת בשר ודם מלך בשר ודם אינו יכול להיות עושה מלחמה ולהיות סופר ומלמד תנוקות והקדוש ברוך הוא אינו כן אתמול בים כעושה מלחמה שנאמר יהוה איש מלחמה ואומר בכחו רגע הים והיום במתן תורה ירד ללמד תורה לבניו וכן הוא אומר הן אל ישגיב בכחו מי כמוהו מורה:

"Come and behold how the manners of the Holy One, blessed be He! are not like the manners of [one made of] flesh and blood. A king [made] of flesh and blood cannot be a warrior, a clerk, and an instructor of children [at the same time]; but the Holy One, blessed be He! is not so; yesterday on the sea [He was] like a warrior as it is said: The Lord is a man of war, (Exod. xv. 3.), and again it is said: He divideth the sea with His power, (Job xxvi. 12.), and to day, on [His] delivering the law, He descended to teach the law to His children; and so it is said: Behold God exalteth by His power, who teacheth like Him? (Job xxxvi. 22)."

1 literally in his heart.

he had seen, and whose form was engraven upon his memory-so that that man exists and is distinguished in his perception from other men-in the same way Moses our Rabbi sought to have the essence of the Holy One, blessed be He! distinguished in his mind from the essences of other beings; so that he might know the truth of His existence just as it [really] is. But the Holy One, blessed be He! returned answer to him, that it was not in the power of the intellect of living man, composed of body and soul, perfectly1 to attain unto the truth of this matter.

XI. Yet the Holy One, blessed be He! made known unto him that which no man before him ever knew, and no man after him ever will know; so that he arrived at so much of the truth of His existence as to have the Holy One, blessed be He! distinguished in his perception from other beings, just as any one whose back he had seen, and whose form and dress he was acquainted with, would be distinguished in his perception from the forms of other men; and it is to this that the scripture alludes, when it says: And thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen, (Exod. xxxiii. 23).

XII. And now since it has been demonstrated that He is not a body or a frame, it is clear that none of the accidental qualities, belonging to bodies, can belong to Him; neither composition nor decomposition; neither place nor measure; nei

1 literally: to its clearness, (perspicuity).

ther ascent nor descent; neither right nor left; neither before nor behind; neither sitting nor standing; neither does He exist in time, so that He should have a beginning or an end, or a [precise] number of years, nor is He liable to change, since in Him there is nothing, which can cause a change in Him.

XIII. Again, with Him there is neither death nor life, like the life of a living body; neither folly nor wisdom, like the wisdom of a wise man; neither sleep nor waking; neither anger nor laughter; neither joy nor sorrow; neither silence nor speech, like the speech of the sons of men; and thus the sages say: "Above there is neither sitting nor standing, neither neck nor fainting.”

XIV. Now since the matter stands thus, all these and similar expressions, which are made use of in the law and in the words of the prophets, are altogether figurative and ornamental. Thus it is said: He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, (Ps. ii. 4.); They have provoked me to anger with their vanities, (Deut. xxxii. 21.); As the Lord

גמירי דאין למעלה לא עמידה ולא ישיבה ולא 2 קנאה ולא תחרות ולא עורף ולא עפוי :

"I am taught that above there is neither standing nor sitting, neither jealousy nor contention; neither neck nor fainting. Bab. Talm. Treatise Chagigah, Section 2.

Some of the Commentators instead of deriving by from y to faint, derive it from y to fly, flit, wave about or move, as in onwb and by But they shall fly on the shoulders of the Philistines, (Isai. xi. 14). So that, according to these Commentators, would be rendered by neither neck nor MOTION.

say:

rejoiced, (Deut. xxviii. 63.); and other expressions like these. With regard to all these, the sages "The law spoke according to the language of the sons of men." And thus it is said: Do they provoke me to anger? (Jer. vii. 19).

XV. Behold! it is said: I am the Lord, I change not, (Mal. iii. 6.). If He were sometimes angry, and sometimes joyful, He would suffer change; now these things are found only in bodies dark and low-in those who dwell in houses of clay, the foundation of which is in the dust; but as to Him, blessed be He! He is blessed and is exalted above all this.

PRECEPTS RELATING TO THE FOUNDATIONS

OF THE LAW.

CHAPTER II.

WITH regard to this glorious and awful God

-we are commanded' to love Him, and to fear Him, for it is said: and thou shalt LOVE the Lord thy God, (Deut. vi. 5.), and it is also said: Thou shalt FEAR the Lord thy God, (Deut. vi. 13). But what is the way to the love and the fear of Him?-At the time when one considers His works and His wonderful and great creations, and perceives from them His wisdom, which is incomparable and unbounded, immediately he loves, praises, and glorifies, and longs with great eagerness to know, that great God, just as David said: My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God, (Ps. xlii. 2).

II. Also when one thinks upon these very things, immediately he starts back, and is afraid, and feels terror, and is conscious that he is a creature, small, low, and dark, standing, with only a slight and scanty knowledge, before Him who is perfect in knowledge, as David said: When I con

[it is] a commandment.

Ꮮ