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Part One · Chapter Twenty-Six — The Language of Men
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You already know their saying that comprehends all the kinds of interpretation pertaining to this subject — namely, their saying: 'the Torah speaks in the language of men' (b. Berakhot 31b).
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Its meaning is that whatever all people are able to grasp and picture at first thought is what was affirmed of God, may He be exalted. Therefore He was described by descriptions indicating corporeality, so as to indicate that He, may He be exalted, exists — for the multitude do not at first glance apprehend existence except of a body, and what is not a body, or not present in a body, is for them not existent at all.
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And likewise, everything that is a perfection for us was ascribed to Him, may He be exalted, to indicate that He is perfect in all the modes of perfection and that no imperfection at all is mingled with Him. So whatever the multitude apprehend to be an imperfection or a privation, He is not described by it; and therefore He is not described by eating, nor drinking, nor sleep, nor illness, nor wrongdoing, nor anything resembling these.
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And everything that the multitude suppose to be a perfection, He was described by — even though it is a perfection only relative to us. As for Him, may He be exalted, those things that we all suppose to be perfections are the very height of imperfection. Yet were they to imagine the absence of that human perfection from Him, may He be exalted, this would in their eyes be an imperfection in His regard.
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And you know that motion is among the perfections of an animal and necessary to it in its perfection; for just as it needs food and drink to make good what has been dissolved away, so it needs motion to seek what agrees with it and to flee what opposes it. There is no difference between describing Him, may He be exalted, by eating and drinking, or describing Him by motion; but according to the language of men — I mean the imagination of the multitude — eating and drinking were for them an imperfection in God's regard, while motion is no imperfection in His regard, even though motion too is resorted to only out of need.
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And it has been demonstrated that everything in motion has, without doubt, divisible magnitude; and it will be demonstrated that He, may He be exalted, has no magnitude; so no motion is found in Him, nor is He described by rest either, since only that whose nature it is to move is described by rest.
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So all these nouns that signify the kinds of animal motions — He, may He be exalted, was described by them all in the manner we have said, just as He is described as living, since motion is an accident necessary to an animal. And there is no doubt that with the removal of corporeality all of that falls away — I mean 'descend' and 'ascend,' 'walk' and 'stand' (natzav) and 'stand' (ʿamad) and 'cause,' 'sit' and 'dwell,' 'go out' and 'come' and 'pass,' and everything resembling these.
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To dwell at length on this matter is superfluous, except on account of what the minds of the multitude have grown accustomed to; and for that reason it ought to be made clear, with a little exposition, as we have done — for the sake of those who have taken upon themselves human perfection and the removal of these notions that have come to them from the age of childhood.