אור גוים

(6) For He has said: “It is too little that you should be My servant In that I raise up the tribes of Jacob And restore the survivors of Israel: I will also make you a light of nations, That My salvation may reach the ends of the earth.”

(6) I the LORD, in My grace, have summoned you, And I have grasped you by the hand. I created you, and appointed you A covenant people, a light of nations.

51. Al Khazari: This sentence seems to go too far, and is overbold in expressing that the Creator is glorified through mortal man.

52. The Rabbi: Wouldst thou find this less strange in the creation of the sun?

53. Al Khazari: Certainly, on account of its great power. Next to God it is the cause of being. By its means night and day and the seasons of the year are determined; minerals, metals, plants, and animals were developed through its instrumentality. Its light produced sight and colours. Wherefore should not the action of such a thing be an object of glory among men?

54. The Rabbi: Are not the intellectual faculties much finer than the light that is seen? .... The community was at last considered sufficiently pure for the light to dwell on it, to be worthy of seeing miracles which changed the course of nature, and to understand that the world had a King who watched and guarded it, who knew both great and small, rewarded the good and the wicked, and directed the hearts. All who came after these philosophers could not detach themselves from their principles, so that to-day the whole civilized world acknowledges that God is eternal, and that the world was created. They look upon the Israelites and all that befell them as a proof of this.

(2) 2. Al Khazari: Give me a description of the doings of one of your pious men at the present time.

(3) 3. The Rabbi: A pious man is, so to speak, the guardian of his country, who gives to its inhabitants provisions and all they need. He is so just that he wrongs no one, nor does he grant anyone more than his due. Then, when he requires them, he finds them obedient to his call. He orders, they execute; he forbids, they abstain.

4. Al Khazari: I asked you concerning a pious man, not a leader.

5. The Rabbi: The pious man is nothing but a leader ...