a trance, as will be explained (Part I. chap. xxi., and Part II. chap. xli.; also in" Forasmuch as this people draw near (niggash) me with their mouths and with their lips" (Isa. xxix. 13). Wherever a word denoting approach or contact is employed in the prophetic writings to describe a certain relation between the Almighty and any created being, it has to be understood in this latter sense [viz., to approach mentally]. For, as will be proved in this treatise (II. chap. iv.), the Supreme is incorporeal, and consequently He does not approach or draw near a thing, nor can aught approach or touch Him; for when a being is without corporeality, it cannot occupy space, and all idea of approach, contact, distance, conjunction, separation, touch, or proximity is inapplicable to such a being.
There can be no doubt respecting the verses" The Lord is nigh (karob) unto all them that call upon him" (Ps. cxlv. 18):" They take delight in approaching (kirbat) to God" (Isa. lviii. 2):" The nearness (kirbat) of God is pleasant to Me" (PS. Ixxii. 28): all such phrases intimate a spiritual approach, i.e., the attainment of some knowledge, not, however, approach in space. Thus also" who hath God so nigh (kerobim) unto him" (Dent. iv. 7):" Draw thou near (kerab) and hear" (Dent. V. 27):" And Moses alone shall draw near (ve-niggash) the Lord; but they shall not come nigh (yiggashu)" (Exod. xxiv. 2).
If, however, you wish to take the words" And Moses shall draw near" to mean that he shall draw near a certain place in the mountain, whereon the Divine Light shone, or, in the words of the Bible," where the glory of the Lord abode," you may do so, provided you do not lose sight of the truth that there is no difference whether a person stand at the centre of the earth or at the highest point of the ninth sphere, if this were possible: he is no further away from God in the one case, or nearer to Him in the other; those only approach Him who obtain a knowledge of Him; while those who remain ignorant of Him recede from Him. In this approach towards, or recession from God there are numerous grades one above the other, and 1 shall further elucidate, in one of the subsequent chapters of the Treatise (I. chap. lx., and II. chap. xxxvi.) what constitutes the difference in our perception of God.
In the passage," Touch (ga') the mountains, and they shall smoke
(Ps. cxliv. 5), the verb" touch" is used in a figurative sense, viz.," Let thy word touch them." So also the words," Touch thou him himself" (job ii. 5), have the same meaning as" Bring thy infliction upon him." In a similar manner must this verb, in whatever form it may be employed be interpreted in each place, according to the context: for in some cases it denotes contact of two material objects, in others knowledge and comprehension of a thing, as if he who now comprehends anything which he had not comprehended previously had thereby approached a subject which had been distant from him. This point is of considerable importance.
CHAPTER XIX
THE term male is a homonym which denotes that one substance enters another, and fills it, as" And she filled (va-temalle) her pitcher" (Gen. xxiv. 16):" An omer-full (melo) for each" (Exod. xvi. 32), and many other instances. Next, it signifies the expiration or completion of a fixed period of
