CHAPTER 24

Going [al-halikhah] too is one of the terms referring to some particular motions of living beings. Thus: And Jacob went on his way.¹ This usage is frequent. Sometimes this term is used figuratively to designate the extension of bodies more subtle than the bodies of living beings. Thus: And the waters went and decreased;² And fire went down unto the earth.³ Subsequently this term was used figuratively to designate the spread and the manifestation of a certain thing even if the latter were in no way corporeal. Thus it says: The voice thereof shall go like a serpent.4 Similar is its dictum: The voice of the Lord God going about in the garden.⁵ It is the voice that was said to be going about. Every mention of going that occurs with reference to God, may He be exalted, conforms to this figurative use. I mean that with respect to what is incorporeal, it is used figuratively to denote either the spread of a thing⁶ or the withdrawal of providence, which, in the case of a living being, has its analogy in the latter’s turning away from a thing through going. And just as the withdrawal of providence is referred to as the hiding of the face—as in its dictum: As for Me, I will surely hide My face⁷—it also is referred to as going, which has the meaning [28b] to turn away from a thing. Thus Scripture says: I will go and return to My place.8 As for its dictum, And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and He went away,⁹ the two significations subsist together in the passage. I mean the signification of a withdrawal of providence referred to by means of the term “turning away,” and the signification of a spread, diffusion, and manifestation of a thing. I mean to say that it was the anger that went and extended toward the two.¹⁰ For this reason, [Miriam] became leprous, as white as snow.¹¹ The term going is also applied figuratively to living a good life,¹² without in any way moving a body. Thus it says: And thou shalt go in His ways;¹³ After the Lord your God shall ye go;¹⁴ Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.¹⁵