436. The following comparisons will serve to illustrate this further. There is no approaching someone who keeps a leopard or a panther in his room, and lives safely with them because he feeds them, unless one first gets rid of the wild animals. If anyone is invited to dine with a king and queen, does he not wash his face and hands before coming to table? Does anyone fail to heat minerals to purify them and separate them from slag before he gets pure gold and silver? Is there anyone who does not separate the tares from his wheat crop, before storing it in the granary? Is there anyone who does not boil raw meat to cook it, before it becomes eatable and is served at table? Does anyone fail to shake grubs off the leaves of his garden trees, to prevent the leaves being eaten and the fruit lost? Does anyone love a girl and aim to marry her, if she is tainted with malignant disease or covered in spots or pimples, however much she makes up her face, dresses up in fine clothes, and tries to make herself attractive by paying compliments? A person's duty to cleanse himself from evils is like a servant coming in with his face or clothes filthy with soot or dung, and going to his master and saying: 'Please wash me, Sir.' Would not the master say to him: 'You foolish servant, what is this you say? Look, here are water, soap and a towel; haven't you got hands and the power to use them? Wash yourself.' So the Lord God will say: 'The means of cleansing I have provided; and you have been given by me the power to will and act. So use the gifts and talents I have given you, and you will be cleansed.' 1
Footnotes:
1. This passage is largely repeated from 331.
