Aligned sentence by sentence
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Part One · Chapter Eight — Makom
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Makom. The original imposition of this noun is for place, both particular and general.
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Then the language broadened it and made it a noun for a person's rank and standing — I mean for his eminence in some matter — so that one says 'so-and-so is in the place of so-and-so' in such-and-such a matter.
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You know how often the masters of the language use it so, in their saying, 'filling the place of his fathers,' and 'he was filling the place of his fathers in wisdom or in fear [of God]'; and in their saying, 'and the dispute still stands in its place' — meaning in its rank.
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And in this manner of borrowing it was said, 'Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place' (Ezek 3:12) — meaning according to His rank and the greatness of His portion in existence.
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And likewise every mention of 'place' that comes regarding God — what is meant by it is the rank of His existence, may He be exalted, which has no equal or likeness, as will be demonstrated.
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Know that for every noun whose equivocity we explain to you in this treatise, the aim is not merely to draw your attention to what we mention in that chapter; rather we open a gateway and alert you to the senses of that noun useful for our purpose — not according to the aims of one who treats of the language of some people.
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And you, for your part, reflect on the books of prophecy and the other works of the men of knowledge, consider all the nouns employed in them, and assign each equivocal noun to whichever of its senses befits it according to that passage.
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This statement of ours is the key to this treatise and to others.
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An example of this is what we explained here of the sense of 'place' in 'Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place': you will know that this very sense is the sense of 'place' in 'behold, there is a place by Me' (Exod 33:21) — a rank of speculation and an ascent of intellect, not an ascent of the eye — over and above the actual spot indicated, on the mountain where the seclusion and the attaining of perfection took place.