Treatise of the Garden on Figurative and Literal Language

When I looked for some particular work of our Maker and Creator (exalted and sanctified be His name) to discuss thoroughly, so that the little I include would point to the much that I omit, I found nothing among all the things that He created, nor did I encounter among His greatest creations anything, from the outermost sphere to the center of the earth, more impressive than the nature of man. Among the animals, man is the most temperate in nature, the most perfect in form, the finest in appearance, the noblest in constitution, and the most beautiful in his shape. Man alone is given commandments and prohibitions, and is capable of obedience and disobedience.

That he is superior in nature to all other creatures is not refuted by the words of David (peace be upon him): What is man that You are mindful of him? (Psalms 8:5). Rather, he meant to call attention to man’s excellence and to show preference for his nobility. For David contemplates the essence of this macrocosm and the nature of the heavens and of heavenly phenomena, the amplitude of their spaces and regions, the placement of their zones and luminaries, the appearance of their foci and spheres, as he says: When I see your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars that You have established (Psalms 8:4); then, he contemplates the two luminaries, the greater of which, as astronomy leads one to conclude, is 166 times the size of the terrestrial globe (for the Almagest contains the figure 166 1/3 times),¹ and just imagine how much greater is the sphere that contains it compared to the Earth! And, having contemplated these things, he asks what is the value of man compared to that, or what moment has his frail figure in comparison to theirs? Yet You provided him with this knowledge of them, and of other things besides, so that he is no different from the angels, with life and reason (but also one extra property which is actually a defect, namely, death), as he says, “You have made him little less than the angels.” Furthermore, You gave him dominion over all the creatures of the lower world and made him ruler over all of your animal creatures, as he says: You gave him dominion over the works of your hands . . . sheep and oxen, all of them . . . the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea (Psalms 8:7–9). Then he repeats the theme of contemplation with which he began, saying: Lord our God, how great (Psalms 8:10).

[Lord, our Lord, how glorious is your name in all the earth! For [asher] You have set your majesty in the heavens. (Psalms 8:2)]

The word asher in verse 2 means “for” or “because,” as in for [asher] he had defiled their sister (Genesis 34:13). The meaning is, “On account of man and his singular nature, Your name is as great in the land as the splendor of Your light is great in the heavens.” Day means the movements of the heavens that God’s servants can see, and night means the motions of heaven that they cannot see. Since this contemplation of the state of the heavens with its stars and the lesser luminary occurs at night when they all are visible by means of the sense of sight, as he says, When I see your heavens, he does not mention the greater luminary, though it is what bestows its light on all of them and gives them its splendor, since that time it is hidden under the shadow of the earth from the intellects of God’s servants. He speaks only of what touches on human senses, which are called the greatest indicator for ascertaining verities.

He did the same in the psalm “The Heavens declare” (Psalm 19) in which he devoted most of the text to the greater luminary rather than the lesser luminary or the stars.

Everything that He made was for the sake of man and for man, as He said: Many things have You done, O Lord my God, even Your wonderful works and Your thoughts toward us (Psalms 40:6). In saying toward us, he means “about us, on account of us,” as if He had said “with us” or “to us;” as when He says bury me to my fathers (Genesis 49:29), meaning “with my fathers”; there was not a city that made peace to the Israelites (Joshua 11:19), meaning “with the Israelites”; and similarly: O Lord my God, to you I have hidden (Psalms 143:9), meaning “with you is whatever I have hidden and kept secret from everyone.”

Among the animals he begins with the fowl of the air because they are hidden away in the air, then he mentions the fish of the sea, because they are hidden under the water. But man’s skill and art reach both of them. [ . . . ]

Men of learning have said that a portion of everything in the upper world and the lower world is found in man in accordance with his nature and mortal frame. It has been said that there is no sphere, star, constellation, animal, plant, element, nor any type of animal that walks, flies, swims, or glides, whatever its particular property, but that something like it can be found in man, in accordance with all their varied natures and characters. To cite examples of this would take too long.

All of the ten Aristotelian categories are found in him. He fits the category of substance in that he is a man; of quantity in that he consists of individual existent things; of quality in that he is white or black; relationship in that he has parents or children; place, in that he is in a male or female body; time, in that he exists in time; possession, in that he has family and property; position, in that he is standing or sitting; acting, in that he eats and drinks; acted upon, in that he may be beaten or hated. These are all found in the Hebrew language. Man is one thing, but the ways in which these things may be disposed in him are numerous.²

All creatures created by God existed before man in time because they exist for his sake. Anything that exists for the sake of another comes into being before that other. Our bodies resemble the bodies of inanimate things in requiring location and in their natural movements. They are like plants in that they grow, multiply, and decay. They resemble animals in many of the accidental properties of their souls, such as desire, anger, fear, and suspicion; and they are like angels in their intellectual activities. But such intellectual capacity as they have is from the source of the universal intellect or from Him who gave it, namely, the Creator, the exalted and mighty.

Source: National Library of Israel MS Heb. 8°5701, fols. 13–19.