come to them in dreams, inform them of secret things, and be useful to them. All these were opinions that were in those times followed, favored, and generally accepted $ the multitude did not doubt of their truth. There¬ upon the Law, which is perfect in the opinion of those who know it, began to put an end to these inveterate diseases.28 Consequently it prohibited the eating of blood, putting the same emphasis on this prohibition as on the prohibition against idolatry. For He, may He be exalted, says, I will set My face against that soul that eateth blood, and so on,29 just as He has said with regard to him who gives of his seed to Moloch:™ I will even set My face against that soul, and so o/i.31 No such text occurs regarding a third com¬ mandment other than the prohibition of idolatry and of eating of blood. This is so because | the eating of blood led to a certain kind of idolatry, namely, to the worship of the jinn. [Scripture] pronounced blood to be pure and turned it into a means of purification for those who come near it: And sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and so on; and he and his garments shall be hallowed.™ It also commands the sprinkling of blood upon the altar and causes the whole act of worship to consist in pouring it out there, not in gathering it together: And I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement.33 There it was poured out according to what it says: And all the [, remaining ] blood shall he pour out;™ and it says: And the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the Lord thy God.™ And it commands pouring the blood of every beast that is slaughtered, even if it was not offered up in sacrifice; it says: Thou shalt pour it out upon the earth as water.™ Thereupon it forbids gathering around the blood and eating there, saying: You shall not eat round the blood.™ When they con¬ tinued in their disobedience and in following the generally accepted usage in which they had been brought up of fraternizing with the jinn through eating around the blood, He, may He be exalted, commanded that no meat of desire™ be eaten at all in the desert, but that all be offered up as peaceofferings. It is clear to us that the reason for this is that the blood should be poured out upon the altar and that people should not gather around it. Accordingly it says: To the end that the children of Israel may bring, and so on. And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto the devils [ seHrim.], and so on.™ But the matter of wild beasts and of birds still remained to be 28. This translation seems preferable to the one proposed in Munk’s translation: “The per¬ fect Law undertook to put an end to these rooted diseases among those who recognize it.”
37. Lev. 19:26, 38. I.e., meat that was not consecrated and that was eaten when one wished.
105a ] The Guide of the Perplexed III -46 settled, for wild beasts may not be sacrificed at all and birds may not be offered as peace-offerings. Consequently He, may He be exalted, commanded that when any of the wild beasts or birds whose flesh it is permitted to eat has been slaughtered, its blood should be covered up with dust40 so that people should not gather to eat around it. Thus the aim was achieved and the purpose realized: namely, to break the brotherhood 41 between those truly possessed42 and their jinn. Know that the epoch of this belief was close to the time of Moses our Master, that it had a great following, and that people were led astray by it. You will find that this is literally stated in the song Hcdazinu: They sacrificed unto devils, which are not | God, to gods which they have not known, and so on.*5 The Sages have explained the meaning of its dictum, which are not God, in that they said that they not only persisted in worshipping existent things but even imaginary ones. This is the text of Siphre: It is not enough that they worship the sun, the moon, and the constellations, they even worship their babida.** The word babida means shadow. I shall now return to what we are discussing.
Know that the meat of desire was only forbidden in the desert. For it was one of the generally accepted opinions that the jinn lived in deserts and held converse and appeared there, but did not appear in cities and cultivated places $ so that whenever a townsman wished to do something in the ways of this insanity, he had to go from the city to the desert and to isolated places. Therefore the meat of desire became permitted after the entry into the land [of Canaan]. Also because indubitably the strength of that malady had diminished, and the number of followers of those opinions had become less. Also because it was very difficult and nearly impossible that all those who wished to eat the meat of a [domestic] beast should go to Jerusalem. For these reasons the meat of desire was only forbidden in the desert.
Know that the greater the sin that had been committed, the more defective was the species from which the sacrifice offered up for it was taken. Therefore only a she-goat is offered up for an act of idolatry com¬ mitted inadvertently,45 and other sins of a private individual require a ewe- lamb or a she-goat. For a female is in all species more defective than the male, and there is no sin greater than idolatry, and no kind more defective 40. Cf. Lev. 17:13. 41. Cf. Zech. 11:14.
42. al-majdnin. In ordinary Arabic usage the word means “madmen”; but it has the same root as the word jinn (demons) and originally designated “those possessed by jinn.”
43. Deut. 32:17. Moses’ song figuring in Deut. 32 begins with the word ha^azinu (give ear).
44. The passage of Siphre discussing the scriptural verse quoted above. In our edition the passage is somewhat different, and the word babiCa does not occur in it.
45. Cf. Num. 15:27.
j88 The Guide of the Perplexed III • 46 [ 105 b than a she-goat. Because of the king’s distinguished rank, the sacrifice required for his inadvertent transgression is a he-goat. As for the High Priest and congregation *6 their inadvertent transgressions do not consist merely in actions, but also in legal decisions. Hence they had the distinction that the sacrifices required of them were bullocks fi and in cases of idolatry, he-goats.*8 Inasmuch as the sins for which a guilt-offering was brought | were less important than those for which a sin-offering was required, the sacrifice offered up in a guilt-offering was a ram or a young male lamb;49 thus both the species and the sex have distinction, the sacrifice being a male sheep. Do you not see that the sex of the burnt-offering, which is entirely con¬ secrated to God, has distinction, for it may only be male.50 For the same reason the oblation of a sinner and the oblation of an unfaithful wife, which latter is also due to her being suspected of having committed a sin, are deprived of ornamental additions and of good odors; it was forbidden to offer oil and frankincense with them. This ornamental addition was taken away from them because those who brought these offerings were not good nor were they fine in their actions; accordingly when they made a motion toward repentance, they were, as it were, told: Because of the disgraceful character of your actions, your sacrifice will be of a most defective condition. As the action of the unfaithful wife is more disgraceful than that com¬ mitted by the inadvertent transgressor, her sacrifice was of a most defective matter, namely, barley flour.5i These particulars have thus been set forth in a consistent way; they are wonderfully meaningful.
The Sages have already mentioned that the reason for the offering on the eighth day of consecration being a calf, a young bullock for a sin-offering,52 was that it constituted an atonement for the action of the [ golden ] calf, and similarly that the Day of Atonement's sin-offering being a young bullock for a sin-offering 53 constituted an atonement for the action of the [ golden ] calf. In accordance with the notion that they have mentioned, it seems to me that the reason for the fact that all the sin-offerings, both of private individuals and of the congregation, are he-goats \secirim\ — I refer to the he-goats [ offered on the occasion of the festivals ] of pilgrimage, on the New-Moons, on the Day of Atonement, and \_for the sin] of idolatry — is that the reason, in my opinion, was that their greatest act of disobedience consisted at that time in sacrificing to the secirimff as the text states: And they shall no more 46. Here the Sanhedrin is meant. 47. Cf. Lev. 4:4 and 14. 48. Cf. Num. 15:24.
54. The word denotes both “he-goats” and “devils.”
io6 b ] The Guide of the Perplexed III -46 389 offer their sacrifices to the seHrim after whom they have gone a whoring.55 However the Sages, may their memory be blessed, consider that the reason for which the congregation is constantly atoned for by means of se'irim is that the whole congregation of Israel committed their first act of dis¬ obedience with the help of a kid [secir\ of goats. They refer | to the sale of Joseph the righteous, in whose story it is said: And they killed a kid of goats, and so on.56 Do not regard this reason as feeble. For the end of all these actions is to establish firmly in the soul of every disobedient individual the constant need for remembering and making mention of his sin— as it is said: And my sin is ever before me 57 — and that he, his descendants, and the descendants of his descendants, must seek forgiveness for the sin by an act of obedience belonging to the same species as the act of disobedience. I mean by this that if the act of disobedience was in connection with property, he must expend his property in the act of obedience. If the act of disobedience consists in corporeal pleasures, he must weary and afflict his body by means of fasting and awakening at night. If the act of disobedience pertains to morals, he must practice the contrary moral habit in opposition to it, as we have explained in Laws concerning Opinions5* and elsewhere. If the act of disobedience consists in a speculation — I mean by this that if he believes in an opinion that is not sound because of his incapacity and his slackness in inquiry and in devoting himself to speculation — he must counter this by suppressing his reflection and preventing it from reflecting about anything pertaining to the things of this world, but direct it exclusively to the intelligible and to an exact study of what ought to be believed. This approximates its dictum: And my heart hath been secretly enticed, but my hand touched my mouth j59 this is a simile for withdrawal and abstention with regard to something obscure, as we have explained in the beginning of this Treatise. This was done, as you will see, in the case of Aaron 5 for when he went astray in the action of the [ golden ] calf, it was prescribed that he and those of his descendants who would replace him, should sacrifice a bullock and a calf.60 When the act of disobedience concerned a kid [secir] of goats, the act of obedience also concerned a kid of goats. When these notions are consolidated in the soul, this leads without any doubt necessarily to one’s taking a grave view of the act of disobedience and to an avoidance of it, so that the individual in question will not, by stumbling into it, be in need of a long and unpleasant quest for forgiveness, which sometimes may not | be 58. Cf. Mishneh Torah, De'oth, II 2. 5g. Job 31:27.
jpo The Guide of the Perplexed III • 46 [ 107a achieved. Accordingly he will avoid and flee from the act of disobedience from the outset. This is of most manifest utility. Grasp also this intention.
I see fit to call your attention here to a very strange matter, though its external meaning does not pertain to the purpose of the Treatise. This concerns the fact that only the he-goat [secir] offered on the New-Moon as a sin-offering is called in [Scripture] a sin-offering unto the Lord.61 None of the he-goats offered on any of the [ festivals ] of pilgrimage or in the other sin-offerings are called thus. The reason for this is, in my opinion, most manifest; namely, that the sacrifices offered by the congregation at certain periods, I refer to the additional [sacrifices], were all of them burnt-offerings; and a kid of goats was brought on each of those days as a sin-offering and eaten. Now the burnt-offerings were burnt in their entirety, and therefore they are explicitly designated as an offering made by fire unto the Lord;62 whereas it is never said, a sin-offering unto the Lord or a peace-offering unto the Lord, for these were eaten. It was not even permissible that the sin- offerings that were burnt63 be called an offering made by fire unto the Lord; the reason for this I shall explain in this chapter. Consequently one cannot therefore conceive that the he-goats referred to above should be called sinofferings unto the Lord, for they were eaten and not burnt in their entirety. As, however, it was apprehended that the he-goat offered on the New-Moon could be imagined to be a sacrifice to the moon, such as was offered by the Copts6* of Egypt at the beginning of the months, it was explicitly stated that this goat was consecrated to God and not to the moon. This apprehen¬ sion was not felt with regard to the he-goats offered on the [festivals ] of pilgrimage and on other occasions because these days were not beginnings of months and had no natural sign to distinguish them, but were instituted by the Law through an imposed convention. The beginnings of the lunar months, on the other hand, were not instituted through a convention imposed by the Law; but the religious communities used to sacrifice on those days to the moon, just as they sacrificed to the sun when it rose and when it entered | certain degrees of the ecliptic, as is universally admitted in the books in question.65 For this reason an anomalous expression is used with regard to the he-goat referred to above; it is said of it that it is to be offered unto the Lord, so that the fancies bound up with those hearts66 suffering from inveterate disease be put to an end. Know then this marvel¬ lous thing too.
64. Or: Egyptians. Quit. 65. The books of the Sabians.
66. Those of the Children of Israel.
1076] The Guide of the Perplexed III -46 jpj Know that all sin-offerings that are believed to serve in seeking forgive¬ ness for great sins or for one great sin, such as the sin-offering for ignorance and others of the same kind, are burnt in their entirety outside the camp and not upon the altar; for only the burnt-offering and similar things may be burnt upon the altar. Hence it is called the altar of the burnt-offering,67 for the smell of the meat of the burnt-offering is a sweet odor, and similarly all memorials are a sweet odor. And indubitably this is so, for these sacrifices were performed with a view to putting an end to idolatrous opinions, as we have explained. As for the burning of these sin-offerings, its purpose was to signify that the trace of the sin in question was wiped out and had dis¬ appeared just as the body that had been burnt had disappeared, and that no trace remained of that action just as no trace remained of the sin-offering, which was destroyed by having been burnt. Consequently its burning could not offer a sweet odor unto the Lord,60 but the contrary 5 I mean that there was detestable and abhorrent smoke. It was therefore burnt in its entirety outside the camp. Do you not see what is said of the oblation of an unfaithful wife: An oblation of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance P69 By no means is it described as a pleasing thing.
Inasmuch as the he-goat that was sent forth into the wilderness served wholly to atone for great sins, so that there was no sin-offering of the congregation that served as atonement in as great a measure as that goat, which was as it were the bearer of all the sins, it was not to receive at all such treatment as being slaughtered or burnt or sacrificed, but had to be removed to as great a distance as possible and sent forth unto a land that is cut off,70 I mean one that was separated from habitation. No one has any doubt that sins are not | bodies that may be transported from the back of one individual to that of another. But all these actions are parables serving to bring forth a form in the soul so that a passion toward repentance should result: We have freed ourselves from all our previous actions, cast them behind our backs, and removed them to an extreme distance.
As for the offering of wine, I am up to now perplexed with regard to it: How could He have commanded to offer it, since the idolaters offered it? No reason for this has occurred to me. Someone else gave the following reason: For the desire, which is located in the liver, the most excellent thing is meat; for the animal faculty, which is located in the heart, the most excellent thing is wine; similarly the faculty located in the brain — that is, 68. Certain portions of the sacrifices and the offerings are called thus; cf., e.g., Lev. 2:9.
2 The Guide of the Perplexed III • 4-7 [ 108a the psychic faculty — takes pleasure in songs accompanied by instruments. Therefore every faculty offers to God the thing most cherished by it. Accordingly offerings consist in meat, wine, and sound — I mean song.
The reason for the utility of pilgrimage is well known. For such a gathering results in a renewal of the Law, this being a consequence of people being affected by it and of the fraternity that comes about among them because of it. This applies especially to the commandment to assemble [the people], whose reason is manifest: That they may hear, and so on.7i The money for the second tithe was meant to be spent there,72 as we have explained;73 also the fourth-year fruit of planting1* and the tithe of the cattle. There were accordingly there the meat of the tithe, the wine of the fourth-year fruit of planting and the silver for the second tithe. Consequently there was much food there, for it was not lawful to sell a part of this or to set it aside from one period to the next. But as He, may He be exalted, has said: Year in year, and so onf 5 hence of necessity it had to be used in giving alms. Now giving alms in the course of festivals is insisted upon. It says: And thou shall rejoice in thy festival, thou and thy son | and thy daughter, and so on, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow.16 We have now dealt with the single commandments belonging to this class and with many of ^heir particulars.
CHAPTER 47 The commandments comprised in the twelfth class are those that we have enumerated in the Book of Cleanness. Even though we have already summarily mentioned their utility, we shall give additional explana¬ tions and we shall set forth the reasons for this class of commandments, as is proper. After that I will give the reasons for the various particular com¬ mandments— those of them whose reasons have become clear to me. I shall then say that this Law of God, which was prescribed to Moses our Master, to whom in consequence it is ascribed, came to facilitate the actions of worship and to lighten the burden. All the things in it that you may perhaps imagine to involve unpleasantness or a heavy burden appear so to you only because you do not know the usages and teachings that existed in those days.
75. Deut. 14:22. The quotation is not exact. 76. Deut. 16:14.
io8Z>] The Guide of the Perplexed III • +7 It behooves you to compare a rite in which for reasons of divine worship a man burns his child with one in which lie burns a young pigeon. The Torah states literally: For even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods } This was the worship they rendered to their gods. What corresponds to this in our worship is the burning of a young pigeon or even of a handful of flour. In view of this our religious community2 was rebuked when in a state of apostasy, and was told: O My people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against Me.3 It is also said concerning this subject: Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? or a land of thick darkness? Wherefore say My people, we roam at large, and so and he means, what unpleasant burden was imposed upon them by I this Law so that they turned away from it? He, may He be exalted, also addresses us, saying: What iniquity have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and so on 3 All these texts have one purpose.
This is a premise of great importance that must not be lost from your mind. After having stated it, I shall say: We have already explained that the whole intention with regard to the Sanctuary was to affect those that came to it with a feeling of awe and of fear $ as it says: Ye shall fear My Sanctuary.6 Now if one is continually in contact with a venerable object, the impression received from it in the soul diminishes and the feeling it provokes becomes slight. The Sages, may their memory be blessed, have already drawn attention to this notion, saying that it is not desirable that the Sanctuary should be entered at every moment, and in support quoted its dictum: Let thy foot be seldom in thy neighbor's house, lest he be sated with thee, and hate thee.1 This being the intention, He, may He be exalted, forbade the unclean to enter the Sanctuary in spite of there being many species of uncleanness, so that one could — but for a few exceptions — scarcely find a clean individual. For even if one were preserved from touching a carcass of a beast, one might not be preserved from touching one of the eight creeping animals,8 which often fall into dwellings and into food and drink and upon which a man often stumbles in walking. And if one were preserved from that, one might not be preserved from contact with a menstruating woman or a woman or a man having a running issue or a leper or their bed.9 And if one were preserved from that, one might not be pre¬ served from sexual intercourse with one's wife or from nocturnal pollution,10 And even if one were cleansed from these kinds of uncleanness, one would The Guide of the Perplexed III • 47 [ 109a not be allowed to enter the Sanctuary till after sunset.11 Nor was one allowed to enter the Sanctuary at night, as is made clear in Middoth and Tamid;12 and on that night in most cases the man in question would have intercourse with his wife or one of the other courses of uncleanness would befall him, and he would find himself on the following day in the same position as on the day before. Thus all of this was | a reason for keeping away from the Sanctuary and for not entering it at every moment. You know already what [the Sages] literally say: Even a clean man may not enter the Hall for the purpose of performing divine service before having immersed himself [in water ].15 In consequence of such actions, fear will continue and an impression leading to the humility that was aimed at will be produced. To the extent that a certain kind of uncleanness was more frequent, purification from it was more difficult and was achieved at a later moment. Being under the same roof as dead bodies, more especially those of relatives and neighbors, is more frequent than any other kind of unclean¬ ness. Accordingly one is purified from it only by means of the ashes of a [red] heifer, though these are very rare, and after seven days.14 Running issue