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 and perfectly disgraceful; we must not imitate the songs and tales of ignorant and lascivious people. It may be suitable to them, but is not fit for those who are told, "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exod. xix. 6). Those who employ the faculty of thinking and speaking in the service of that sense which is no honour to us, who think more than necessary of drink and love, or even sing of these things: they employ and use the divine gift in acts of rebellion against the Giver, and in the transgression of His commandments. To them the following words may be applied: "And I multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal" (Hos. ii. 10). I have also a reason and cause for calling our language the holy language--do not think it is exaggeration or error on my part, it is perfectly correct--the Hebrew language has no special name for the organ of generation in females or in males, nor for the act of generation itself, nor for semen, nor for secretion. The Hebrew has no original expressions for these things, and only describes them in figurative language and by way of hints, as if to indicate thereby that these things should not be mentioned, and should therefore have no names; we ought to be silent about them, and when we are compelled to mention them, we must manage to employ for that purpose some suitable expressions, although these are generally used in a different sense. Thus the organ of generation in males is called in Hebrew gid, which is a figurative term, reminding of the words, "And thy neck is an iron sinew" (gid) (Isa. xlviii. 4). It is also called shupka, "pouring out" (Deut. xxiii. 2), on account of its function. The female organ is called kobah (Num. xxv. 8), from kobah (Deut. xviii. 3), which denotes "stomach"; reḥem, "womb," is the inner organ in which the fœtus develops; ẓoah (Isa. xxviii. 8), "refuse," is derived from the verb yaẓa, "he went out"; for "urine" the phrase meme raglayim, "the water of the feet" (2 Kings. xviii. 17), is used; semen is expressed by shikbat zera‘, "a layer of seed." For the act of generation there is no expression whatever in Hebrew: it is described by the following words only: ba‘al, "he was master"; shakab, "he lay"; laḳah, "he took"; gillah ‘ervah, "he uncovered the nakedness." Be not misled by the word yishgalennah (Deut. xxviii. 30), to take it as denoting that act: this is not the case, for shegal denotes a female ready for cohabitation. Comp. "Upon thy right hand did stand the maiden" (shegal) "in gold of Ophir" (Ps. xlv. 10). Yishgalennah, according to the Kethib, denotes therefore "he will take the female for the purpose of cohabitation."

We have made in the greater part of this chapter a digression from the theme of this treatise, and introduced some moral and religious matter, although they do not entirely belong to the subject of this treatise, but the course of the discussion has led to it.

CHAPTER IX
THE corporeal element in man is a large screen and partition that prevents him from perfectly perceiving abstract ideals: this would be the case even if the corporeal element were as pure and superior as the substance of the spheres; how much more must this be the case with our dark and opaque body. However great the exertion of our mind may be to comprehend the Divine Being or any of the ideals, we find a screen and partition between Him and