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— what is objectionable in them is their isolation in worship alone and their claim that one should not occupy oneself with anything else; for if he does not attend to food, the body cannot persist.
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And if he does not attend to offspring, worship ceases from its very root — for if the people of a generation all committed to this and then died, worship would die with them.
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Worship is meant for fathers and their sons and their sons' sons — as it says: 'That you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and commandments which I command you — you and your son and your son's son all the days of your life' (Deut. 6:2).
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Then let me clarify what escaped them: that worship consists of all the rational and revealed commandments — as it says: 'And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to keep the commandments of the Lord' (Deut. 10:12).
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What would the solitary worshiper do with the commandments about just weights and measures — it says: 'Just scales, just stones' (Lev. 19:36)? And what about judging with equity — it says: 'Do not distort justice, do not show partiality' (Deut. 16:19)?
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And what about permitted and forbidden foods — it says: 'These are the living creatures you may eat' (Lev. 11:2)? And purity and impurity — it says: 'to distinguish between the impure and the pure; and to instruct on the day of impurity and the day of purity' (Lev. 10:10–11)?
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And likewise the commandments about sowing, tithes, vows, and charity and their like. If you say he will learn these and teach them to others who will practice them — then those others are the worshipers, not him; through them God's worship is accomplished, not through him.
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As for what they said about relying on the Creator for bodily well-being and food — that is as they said. But they missed something: He has appointed for every thing a cause and a pattern, and one ought to seek through that path.
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If they were right that reliance is universal, then let them rely on Him also in the matter of worship to give them reward without worship —
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But if that is not permissible — because He has made worship the cause of reward — then there is no escaping earning, marrying, and the other pursuits He has made the causes of people's interests.
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Except that He may at times do something of this by way of a sign, without human intermediary — but He does not make it a running custom, lest He alter what He set as nature.
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Section XVI. Chapter Thirteen: On the View that Rest is the Finest Pursuit.
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Some said that rest is the cause of the soul's attentiveness to itself, the digestion of its nourishment, the growth of the body, and the strengthening of the senses.
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Whatever a person toils at, his eye is always toward rest — it is always the goal. Do you not see that kings are the most at-rest of people? If this were not the finest pursuit, it would not be chosen for them.
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And tranquility of thought comes only from abandoning agitation, restlessness, worry, and grief. Indeed the true religion, when measured by analogy, resembles rest — it says: 'and find rest for your souls' (Jer. 6:16); and He prescribed rest for the Sabbath and holidays.
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I looked closely at the view of these people and found them the most ignorant of all — indeed they said what they themselves do not understand.
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For rest only comes into being for a person after earnest effort, firm management of his affairs, and proper arrangement of his causes — then at that point he settles and rests. As it says: 'Prepare your work outside and make it ready in the field; and afterward build your house' (Prov. 24:27).
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As for rest alone without any of these — it is rest in name only; its actual meaning is laziness. And do not even ask what constant laziness produces.
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But a person neglects things for a time and is lazy a while — until poverty overtakes him, running at a run