Aligned sentence by sentence
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Part One · Chapter Thirty-Two — Restraint in Speculation
Know, O reader of my treatise, that there befalls the intellectual apprehensions, inasmuch as they have a connection with matter, something resembling what befalls the sense-apprehensions. For when you look with your eye you apprehend what is in your sight's power to apprehend; but if you force your eyes and strain in looking and take it upon yourself to look at a very great distance, farther than is in your power to look, or you scrutinize a very fine script or a fine engraving that is not in your power to apprehend, and you force your sight to make it out — then your sight not only grows weak for that which you cannot do, but it also grows weak for what is in your power to apprehend, your sight is wearied, and you no longer see what you were able to apprehend before the straining and the forcing.
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Likewise every inquirer into some science finds this his condition in the state of reflection: that if he goes deep in reflection and forces every notion, he is dulled and does not then understand even what it is his nature to understand — for the condition of all the bodily faculties in this respect is one and the same.
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Something like this happens to you in the intellectual apprehensions. For if you halt at the point of doubt and do not deceive yourself by believing there is a demonstration where nothing has been demonstrated, and do not rush to repel and decide by denial everything whose contrary has not been demonstrated, and do not aspire to apprehend what you cannot apprehend — then you will have attained human perfection and will be in the rank of Rabbi Akiva, peace be upon him, who 'entered in peace and went out in peace' in his speculation on these divine matters. But if you aspire to an apprehension above your apprehension, or rush to deny matters whose contrary has not been demonstrated, or which are possible — even by the remotest possibility — then you will be joined to Elisha Aher; and not only will you fail to be perfect, but you will become the most deficient of the deficient, and there will then happen to you a predominance of the imaginings and an inclination toward defects, vices, and evils, on account of the intellect's being occupied and its light extinguished — just as there happen to the sight kinds of false imaginings when the seeing spirit is weakened, in the sick, and in those who strain to look at bright objects or at fine objects.
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In this sense it was said: 'Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it' (Prov 25:16); and so the Sages, of blessed memory, drew it as a parable upon Elisha Aher. How wonderful is this parable! For it likened knowledge to eating, as we said, and it mentioned the sweetest of foods, which is honey — and honey by its nature, if one takes too much of it, upsets the stomach and is vomited. It is as if it said that the nature of this apprehension, for all its sublimity and greatness and the perfection in it, if one does not halt at its limit and proceed in it with caution, is reversed to a defect, like the eating of honey, which, if eaten in measure, nourishes and gives delight, but if increased, the whole is lost. It did not say 'lest thou be filled therewith and loathe it,' but said 'and vomit it.'
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To this sense too he pointed in his saying, 'It is not good to eat much honey' etc. (Prov 25:27); and to it he pointed in his saying, 'be not over-wise; why shouldst thou destroy thyself?' (Eccl 7:16); and to this he pointed in his saying, 'keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God' etc. (Eccl 4:17); and to this David pointed in his saying, 'neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too wonderful for me' (Ps 131:1); and to this sense the Sages aimed in their saying, 'seek not out the things that are too hard for thee, and search not the things that are hidden from thee; in what is permitted to thee, inquire — thou hast no business with hidden things' (b. Ḥagigah 13a). It means that you should not set your intellect to range save in what it is possible for a man to apprehend; but as for the matter which it is not in man's nature to apprehend, occupying oneself with it is very harmful, as we have explained. And to this the Sages aimed in their saying, 'whoever looks into four things' etc.; and they completed that statement with their saying, 'whoever has no regard for the honor of his Maker' — an allusion to what we have explained, that a man must not rush to speculate by means of corrupt imaginings. And when a doubt befalls him, or the sought matter is not demonstrated to him, let him not reject and cast it away and rush to deny it, but let him stand firm, have regard for the honor of his Maker, restrain himself, and halt. This is a matter now made clear.
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The intent of these texts which the prophets and the Sages, of blessed memory, said is not to bar the door of speculation entirely and to disable the intellect from apprehending what can be apprehended — as the ignorant and the slothful suppose, who are pleased to make their own deficiency and dullness perfection and wisdom, and the perfection and knowledge of others a deficiency and a departure from the Law, 'putting darkness for light and light for darkness' (Isa 5:20). Rather, the whole intent is to make known that the intellects of human beings have a limit at which they stop.
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And do not criticize the terms used about the intellect in this chapter and elsewhere, since the aim is to guide toward the intended meaning, not to establish the quiddity of the intellect; for the precise treatment of that there are other chapters.