Page:Eight chapters of Maimonides on ethics.djvu/99



passages are found in the Midrash, the Haggadah, and also the Talmud, which state that some of the prophets beheld God from behind many barriers, and some from behind only a few, according to the proximity of the prophet to Him, and the degree of his prophetic power. Consequently, the Rabbis said that Moses, our teacher, saw God from behind a single, clear, that is transparent, partition. As they express it, “He (Moses) looked through a translucent specularia”. Specularia is the name of a mirror made of some transparent body like crystal or glass, as is explained at the end of Tractate Kelim.