Sefer ḥeshbon ha-nefesh (Book of Moral Accounting)

Introduction

[ . . . ] 2. When you stroll along the riverbank, you find an entire plain filled with reeds and bulrushes, all of which are standing erect, one adjacent to the other, and none of them possesses the power to shift itself from its position by even a hair’s breadth. Yet, within a split second, as a result of just a tiny blast of wind, the entire range of their uppermost surface area appears to be agitated and to be swaying violently from one side to the other like the waves of the sea—for none of them possesses sufficient force to fortify itself against it and to remain in place, even for the instant it takes to utter a single word.

Such is the animal soul, which does not possess a “spirit of counsel and might” either to remain stationary or to move of its own accord, by reason of its own free will. On the contrary, it instantly diminishes and continues to do so as a result of the arousal of some motion of the spirit of desire, or of pain, implanted within it at the very inception of its creation, or because it has acquired automatic characteristics through force of long-time habit, until such time as it has satisfied its desires and all its feelings have ceased, whereupon it becomes frozen stiff in the deep slumber of laziness and is no longer capable of moving of its own accord until some random spirit of sensation and desire arrives and awakens it. When two opposing spirits within it encounter each other, it then succumbs to the one which is the stronger of the two at that moment, because it lacks the understanding to foresee the future, and it lacks the counsel and power required to forego even an insignificant amount of transient physical pleasure on account either of permanent pain or pleasure in the future.

Animals enjoy virtually no superiority over plants and inanimate matter, in that they do not possess the power either to remain stationary or to become mobile, or indeed to defer their movements even in the slightest degree, and their animal soul is instantly pushed to one side, just like the reeds and bulrushes referred to above.

Since the animal’s soul, for its part, possesses no free will at all, the notion of “commandment,” or of “admonition” in respect to positive and negative precepts, is of no relevance to it whatsoever.

3. Man, however, who possesses knowledge and craft, and who rules over his spirit, is capable of maneuvering the animal’s soul toward his own advantage at his will; that is to say, to arouse within it a spirit of genuine desire and pain, for example, to get birds to fly away from the standing corn by ringing a bell, or to entice them with the bait of tasty meat to venture close so as to become trapped in a snare, or to generate within it desires and feelings that become automatic by reason of continuous habit, as mentioned above. And one who is well-versed and expert in the art of training is able to make use of all the diverse kinds of powers with which animals are endowed, just as a human being does with those powers appertaining exclusively to him.

To offer an illustration, a type of bird whose sense of sight is extremely sharp can be trained to hunt wild animals, and birds and fish; the strength of the ox can be harnessed for ploughing, that of the donkey for carrying burdens, and the fleetness of the horse can be harnessed in the service of man.

And even insofar as the gigantic elephant is concerned, a beast in comparison to which the entire body of a human being is like a mere gnat in size, hunters nonetheless employ stratagems against them to capture them, by the hundreds and by the thousands. And the Almighty, blessed be He, who empowered man to utilize the winds of the atmosphere for winnowing the grain in the threshing-floor, for the propulsion of millstones and for the transportation of ships laden with cargo from the ends of the earth for his use and benefit, favored him still further by enabling him to rule also over the animal-like spirits of the soul, as mentioned above; and it is by such means that he is able to exert command over the loftiness of the elephant, and to train it to accept the dominion of its owner, to wait in expectation of his trough and to serve him with all its strength, to the point where, judged from the human perspective, living creatures possess virtually no superiority over inanimate objects and plant-life, etc., as mentioned above.

4. Now, intelligent owners have pity on their animals by not burdening them to excess and by supplying them with all their needs in generous measure, so as to galvanize their strength for the labor they are to perform, and they beat them with rods forthwith upon their doing anything wrong so as to prevent their reverting once more to their perverse behavior—and thus the owners gain in both respects. But the reverse is true of foolish owners. They place an entire world, so to speak, upon their animals’ backs and are miserly in regard to the provision of their daily ration of fodder, and as a result of this, they shorten the lifespan of their animals, and accordingly lose the amount of labor they would otherwise have carried out for them; or, in the case of elephants, they cause them to rebel against them, for the power of an elephant’s body is far, far greater than that of a man’s. It rises up against them to trample on them with its feet and to crush their bones, and they are compelled to fight back with hatchets, in the hope that perhaps they will succeed in striking its nose to kill it, or at any rate to deprive it of a limb and to knock out half of its teeth. And there are other idiotic types who sail on the other side of the spectrum; that is to say, they cosset their animal by allotting it a minimal amount of labor to perform, and by providing it with choice fodder; they degrade themselves to play with it and train it to spurn their favors, so that eventually it will enslave its owner for the feeding of its belly. We find an even more extreme instance of this—there is a species of apes that kidnap little children from human beings and rear them with a view to their adoption of an animal lifestyle, and they eat the same food, and cohabit with them, to the point where they become totally assimilated with them.

In general terms, all those wishing to become intoxicated with the powers of animals need to be experts in the task of training them, and energetic craftsmen in the constant invention of diverse types of cunning tricks, varying in accordance with the particular situation. What they also need is enormous diligence and continual patience for days and even years to break into the mindset of those animals that are now being trained by them before they can succeed in injecting their wisdom into their animal soul, and in extending their rule over them for a lengthy period of time in the manner they desire. [ . . . ]

21. But it is on account of the fact that they are very relaxed that the entire essence of their activities is dependent upon continual perseverance on their part, as scripture states: “Water erodes stones” (Job 14:19)—from which it is plain that education pursued in a relaxed and diligent manner adds even to the strength of the animal-like body itself. And this may be illustrated by the anecdote related about a certain great pugilist in the land of Greece, who had accustomed himself to carry a bull-calf on his shoulders for several hours day by day, from the moment of its birth until it had developed into a bull three years of age; and yet it remained incapable of becoming a heavier burden for him to bear, even when fully grown, than when it was little, to the point where those who witnessed this phenomenon were astounded, and those who heard about it did not believe it—that is to say, those who did not appreciate the cunning involved in the deceit practiced by his animal-like soul.

Now the following constitutes the program for the preparations: [ . . . ]