To the totality of purposes of the perfect Law there belong the abandonment, depreciation, and restraint of desires in so far as possible, so that these should be satisfied only in so far as this is necessary. You know already that most of the lusts and licentiousness of the multitude consist in an appetite for eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse. This is what destroys man’s last perfection, what harms him also in his first perfection,1 and what corrupts most of the circumstances of the citizens and of the people engaged in domestic governance. For when only the desires are followed, as is done by the ignorant,2 the longing for speculation is abolished, the body is corrupted, and the man to whom this happens perishes before this is required by his natural term of life; thus cares and sorrows multiply, mutual envy, hatred, and strife aiming at taking away what the other has, multiply. All this is brought about by the fact that the ignoramus regards pleasure alone as the end to be sought for its own sake. Therefore God, may His name be held sublime, employed a gracious ruse through giving us certain laws [73b] that destroy this end and turn thought away from it in every way. He forbids everything that leads to lusts and to mere pleasure. This is an important purpose of this Law. Do you not see how the texts of the Torah command to kill him who manifestly has an excessive longing for the pleasure of eating and drinking? For he is the stubborn and rebellious son,3 to whom its following dictum applies: He is a glutton and a drunkard.4 He commands stoning and cutting him off speedily before the matter becomes serious and before he brings about the destruction of many and ruins by the violence of his lust the circumstances of righteous men.
Similarly to the totality of intentions of the Law there belong gentleness and docility; man should not be hard and rough, but responsive, obedient, acquiescent, and docile. You know already His commandment, may He be exalted: Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.5 Be silent, and hearken, O Israel.6 If ye be willing and obedient.7 With regard to docility in accepting what ought to be accepted, it is said: And we will hear it, and do it.8 By way of a parable, it is said about this: Draw me, we will run after thee.9
Similarly one of the intentions of the Law is purity and sanctification; I mean by this renouncing and avoiding sexual intercourse and causing it to be as infrequent as possible, as I shall make clear.10 Thus when He, may He be exalted, commanded the religious community11 to be sanctified with a view to receiving the Torah, and He said: And sanctify them today and tomorrow12 — He said: Come not near a woman.13 Consequently He states clearly that sanctity consists in renouncing sexual intercourse, just as He also states explicitly that the giving-up of the drinking of wine constitutes sanctity, in what He says about the Nazarite: He shall be saintly.14 A text of Siphra reads: Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy15 — This concerns santification by the commandments. And just as the Law designates obedience to these commandments as sanctity and purity, it also designates transgression of these commandments and the perpetration of evil actions as impurity, [74a] as I shall make clear.
Cleaning garments, washing the body, and removal of dirt also constitute one of the purposes of this Law. But this comes after the purification of the actions and the purification of the heart from polluting opinions and polluting moral qualities. For to confine oneself to cleaning the outward appearance through washing and cleaning the garment, while having at the same time a lust for various pleasures and unbridled license in eating and sexual intercourse, merits the utmost blame. Isaiah says about this: They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go unto the gardens behind one in the midst, eating the flesh of swine, and so on.16 He says: They purify themselves and sanctify themselves in the open and public places; and afterwards, when they are alone in their rooms and in the interior of their houses, they are engaged in acts of disobedience — that is, in their unbridled license in eating forbidden food: the swine and the detestable thing and the mouse.17 Perhaps he refers by means of the words, behind one in the midst, to engaging in solitude in forbidden sexual intercourse. To sum up the dictum: Their outward appearances are clean and universally known as unsullied and pure, whereas innerly they are engaged in the pursuit of their desires and the pleasures of their bodies. But this is not the purpose of the Law, for the first purpose is to restrain desire — the purification of the outer coming after the purification of the inner. Solomon has drawn attention to those who rely upon washing the body and cleaning the garments, whereas their actions are impure and their moral qualities evil. For he says: There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.18
If then you consider likewise these intentions we have mentioned in this chapter, the reasons for many laws will become clear to you; those reasons were unknown before these intentions were known, as I shall explain when recommencing. [74b]