This is evident from the words of the Law: "So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house. This is the meaning of the words, "Clouds and darkness are round about Him" (Ps. But they hold at the same time that the wind did not blow by chance; it is God that caused it to move; it is not therefore the wind that caused the leaves to fall; each leaf falls according to the Divine decree; it is God who caused it to fall at a certain time and in a certain place; it could not have fallen before or after that time or in another place, as this has previously been decreed. The precepts of the second class are those which we have enumerated in the section "On idolatry." xxxiii. Not only does the work contain contrary—eve (Gen. viii. This is known to have occurred in days of old, "And they assembled themselves by troops in a harlot's house" (Jer. In order that the form of the ephod and the breastplate should not be spoiled, they were never separated. He further confirms this view in the following passage: "One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. 18, 19). Be not misled by the accounts of trials, such as "God tried Abraham" (Gen. xxii. These times, which are frequent and long, I think must suffice to you for reflecting on everything that is necessary as regards business, household, and health. The Guide for the Perplexed, originally written in Arabic, and soon translated into Hebrew and widely read, is his best known work. vi. Even the existence of this corporeal element, low as it in reality is, because it is the source of death and all evils, is likewise good for the permanence of the Universe and the continuation of the order of things, so that one thing departs and the other succeeds. These words are immediately followed by the explanation that man himself is the author of this class of evils, "But man is born unto trouble." xxii. The Law commands to stone him and to remove him from society lest he grow up in this character, and kill many, and injure the condition of good men by his great lust. xliii. This is the way how we have to understand the accounts of trials; we must not think that God desires to examine us and to try us in order to know what He did not know before. 37). Our Sages say distinctly, "whatever is used as medicine" does not come under the law of "the ways of the Amorite"; for they hold that only such cures as are recommended by reason are permitted, and other cures are prohibited. The result of the course which Abraham took, is the fact that most people, as we see at present, agree in praising him, and being proud of him; so that even those who are not his descendants call themselves by his name. Comp. xvi. 22), "I will also send the teeth of wild beasts upon them, with the poison of those that creep in dust" (Deut. For it occurs that we consider a thing as physically possible, and then some one objects, or we ourselves fear that our opinion is only the result of imagination, and not that of reason. By his death the relative of the slain person becomes reconciled (ibid. All this serves to keep people away from the Sanctuary, and to prevent them from entering it whenever they liked. Aristotle sees no difference between the falling of a leaf or a stone and the death of the good and noble people in the ship; nor does he distinguish between the destruction of a multitude of ants caused by an ox depositing on them his excrement and the death of worshippers killed by the fall of the house when its foundations give way; nor does he discriminate between the case of a cat killing a mouse that happens to come in her way, or that of a spider catching a fly, and that of a hungry lion meeting a prophet and tearing him. 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